IU Health Simon Cancer Center hosts the largest number of clinical protocols to improve diagnosis, treatment and understanding of toxicity for primary and metastatic liver tumors.
IU Health Simon Cancer Center has the strongest liver transplant program in the United States based on outcomes and the most robust liver-directed therapy program in the Midwest region. They hold a multidisciplinary conference each week, where off-campus partners can present cases or hear how IU Health physicians manage certain cases. This centralized gathering of physicians from a larger geographic area allows you to receive care closer to home, in one convenient location.
For liver cancer, treatments include:
- Liver transplant. Liver transplants provide the most effective treatment for liver cancer and the underlying liver disease from which most liver cancers develop. Surgeons will base your transplant eligibility on the size and number of your tumors. IU Health physicians offer one of the nation’s top programs with respect to the number of liver transplants performed for cancer.
- Surgical resection. Removal of part of your liver.
- Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Special equipment delivers high-dose radiation directly to your tumor without affecting your surrounding healthy tissue.
- Catheter-based techniques. A small flexible tube delivers drugs or other materials directly to the cancerous area of your liver.
- Radiofrequency ablation and microwave ablation. Radio waves or microwaves heat a small area of your liver, which destroys cancerous cells.
Secondary cancers to the liver originate in another site and spread to the liver through the blood stream. IU Health Simon Cancer Center provides a center of excellence for treatment of secondary cancers, including:
- Metastatic colorectal cancer. Cancer that has spread from a portion of your intestines.
- Metastatic neuroendocrine tumors. Cancer that has spread from your lungs, appendix, small intestine (duodenum), rectum, pancreas and other parts of the body. Treatments at IU Health Simon Cancer Center can successfully shrink these cancers, or lessen symptoms associated with them.
In addition to treatment of liver cancer, physicians at IU Health offer excellent palliative care that brings you, your family and your doctors together to create your care plan. Palliative care focuses on providing you relief from the symptoms, pain and stress of your illness—whatever the diagnosis. Your physicians will make it their goal to improve the quality of life for you and your family.