Treating liver cancer requires specialized expertise. At Penn Medicine, you have a team of leading liver cancer experts and support professionals by your side. We offer innovative liver cancer treatment options, including surgical chemotherapy, liver transplant, intricate surgeries and up-and-coming therapies only available through clinical trials.
Liver Cancer Treatment: The Penn Medicine Advantage
Penn Medicine’s fellowship-trained GI cancer specialists treat all types of primary and metastatic liver cancer. Our team’s exceptional abilities have made us a major East Coast referral center for advanced liver cancer cases.
When you come to us, you will find:
- Relentless teamwork: Experienced surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and other specialists discuss the details of your case throughout your treatment. This culture of collaboration delivers the highest quality of personalized care. Meet our GI cancer specialists.
- Streamlined care: Our GI oncology nurse and patient navigators field your questions and schedule you with the right specialist for your needs. We take extra steps to coordinate your care, such as helping you see multiple doctors on the same day.
- Renowned surgical expertise: Penn is home to some of the nation’s top liver surgeons. We have an impressive track record of performing intricate surgeries and liver transplants to successfully remove difficult-to-treat liver tumors.
- Specialized treatment options: Here, you have choices. We offer multiple advanced therapies, such as hepatic artery infusion pumps.
- Exciting clinical trial options: Penn is on the front lines of emerging research exploring immunotherapy’s potential in treating tumors that develop along the GI tract. Read about our GI cancer research.
- Unwavering support: We get to know you on a personal level and provide answers, education and a listening ear. Whether teaching you how to manage treatment side-effects or guiding you to our vast GI cancer support services, our entire team wants to help you thrive.
- Convenient access to experts: Close coordination across Abramson Cancer Center locations makes it easy to receive our experts’ care close to home.
Liver Cancer Treatment Options
Liver cancer treatment usually involves more than one therapy, such as surgery plus chemotherapy. Our specialists design a treatment plan to fit your circumstances and preferences. Your plan may include:
- Surgery
- Liver Transplant
- Medical oncology
- Radiation oncology
- Chemoembolization
- Radioembolization
- Ablation
- Liver cancer clinical trials
- Metastatic liver cancer treatment
Liver Cancer Surgery
At Penn, you have access to some of the best liver surgeons in the world. Their expertise with procedures that remove advanced liver tumors in highly technical ways helps us offer more options for even the most challenging cases. Learn more about liver cancer surgery.
Liver Transplant
Our extensive surgical offerings also include liver transplant, available through Penn’s robust Penn Liver Transplant Program. A liver transplant is a treatment option for patients whose tumor could not be removed because of liver dysfunction, or because of the tumor is present in more than one location in the liver. We perform more transplants for liver cancer than any other program in the region. The outcomes of liver transplant for cancer at Penn are excellent, with 80% to 90% chance of success, and survival rates that exceed national average.
Medical Oncology
Our medical oncologists are experts at treating liver cancer using the latest cancer-fighting drugs. Your care team may recommend one of these medicines before surgery (to shrink a tumor) or after surgery (to destroy any cancer cells that may remain in the body).
Our GI-focused medical oncologists match you with effective cancer drugs that are easier on your body.
Medical oncology treatments include:
Radiation Oncology
Our radiation oncologists are experts at treating complex liver tumors while protecting healthy organs and other tissues nearby. Radiation therapy uses powerful energy beams to destroy liver cancer cells. Home to one of the country’s largest radiation therapy departments, Penn offers all the latest advances, such as proton therapy and stereotactic body radiation therapy, at the Roberts Proton Therapy Center. Our team includes a national expert in treating advanced liver tumors with palliative radiotherapy. Read more about radiation oncology at Penn.
Chemoembolization
Chemoembolization treats primary and metastatic liver tumors directly with minimally invasive techniques. During a chemoembolization procedure, interventional radiologists use sophisticated instruments to deliver a powerful dose of cancer-killing medicine right to the tumor. Read more about interventional radiology.
Liver Cancer Clinical Trials
A clinical trial may offer you the opportunity to try new liver cancer therapies or treatment combinations. You may be able to participate in a clinical trial as part of your treatment. Find out about GI cancer clinical trials.
Metastatic Liver Cancer Treatment
Metastatic liver cancer is when cancer cells spread to the liver after originating in another part of the body (such as the colon). Penn is the only center in the Philadelphia region to offer hepatic artery infusion pump as a treatment option for certain cancers that spread to the liver, such as metastatic colon cancer. This surgically placed pump delivers a concentrated dose of chemotherapy directly to a liver tumor.
Request an Appointment
Call 215-615-5858 to speak with a knowledgeable liver cancer center representative who can guide you to the right liver cancer expert for your needs. You can also request an appointment online.