STUDIES ON HPATOM

Abstract

Primary cancer of the liver is divided into two types, hepatom and cholangiom. In Japan, the incidence rate of the cancer of the liver is about ten times as high as that in Europe. Hepatom develops most frequently in the right lobe of the liver, while cholangiomm occurs in the left lobe. The incidence rate of hepatom is found to be about three times as high as that of cholangiom and male cases are three times as many as those of female. Very often individuals of “cancer age”, namely, over forty years are affected.
Fifty three years old male and forty years old female had hepatom in the right lobe of the liver, and the partial resection of the liver was performed in a rather early stage. Unfortunately, however, the patients died.
Recently, by virtue of the remarkable progress in the techniques of operation, the resection of one entire lobe of the liver with cancer has become feasible and there is aa chance for the patient to survive if the operation is performed when the hepatic function is still normal and the tumor is still localized. In most cases, however, early diagnosis is difficult because of the inconsistent first signs of the primary cancer of the liver. Especially, the cases of hepatom accompanying cirrhosis often show their symptoms only when their liver function has gone considerable disturbance. In such case, it is difficult to resect they right lobe of the liver because of the swelling.
Resection of one entire lobe of the liver, therefore, should be performed before abnormal liver function becomes manifest. Life of the patient with hepatic cancer is unexpectedly short, and according to the literature, most patients die about six months after discovery of the disease.