Resection of liver to treat primary or metastatic liver tumor is important. What are the best liver cancer treatment options? Preserving as much healthy liver as possible is one goal of treatment. Leading Swiss abdominal cancer surgeon explains surgical treatment options for colorectal cancer and liver tumors.

Liver-sparing cancer surgery method to treat primary liver cancer and metastatic colon cancer. 6. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Let's continue talking about the liver resection. Liver cancer surgery is common for metastatic tumor resections such as colon cancer metastases. Liver cancer surgery also removes primary liver tumors, such hepatocellular carcinoma. But the main risk of surgical operations on liver is bleeding. So most surgeons actually stop the blood flow into the liver and out of the liver. This is called vascular clamping. But if you prevent the blood flow to any organ, including the liver, the organ function suffers. Because clamping of blood vessels prevents blood flow. Liver function continues to suffer after the surgery. You have developed a particular surgery technique of liver cancer resection without vascular clamping. What is your liver cancer surgical technique? How does it benefit the patients with primary or metastatic liver cancer? Dr. Christoph Maurer, MD. Perhaps it's a little bit exaggerated that we developed this liver cancer technique. But what we use is a very careful liver dissection technique. We use a gentle water-jet dissection of liver tissue to carefully remove the tumor. Water-jet is a dissection technique where the liver parenchyma gets damaged. But it makes you clearly see the blood vessels and the bile ducts in each liver segment. Therefore, you can ligate blood vessels and bile ducts. Or you can clip them without stress and without bleeding. This gives liver cancer surgeon a very good control during surgical operation. It is a procedure that takes you a little bit longer to perform. Other liver dissection techniques are faster, but they require stopping blood flow to the liver. This liver cancer surgery technique is very reliable. You can see the liver structures very well. You can do an occlusion of these structures in a very reliable manner. So, this is perhaps also the reason why in split-liver procedures most liver surgeons use the water-jet dissector. Because water-jet dissector shows you the vascular structures of liver very nicely. You can perform your liver cancer surgery procedures without any risks. And after surgical operation on liver you have a small blood loss. And you have avoided liver tissue ischemia. That means you have no hypoxic damage to the healthy remaining liver. This is important for postoperative recovery after liver cancer surgery. You have less complications. Patients are stronger during recovery. And patients go home quicker. So, at the end, you save also costs of liver cancer surgery. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. So that's important. This careful liver dissection technique without stopping blood flow improves liver function after surgery. It also improves the quality of life of the patient after operation. Liver cancer surgery method without stopping blood flow to the liver improves liver function. Liver functions better during and after the operation. Dr. Christoph Maurer, MD. Absolutely. And for me, one of the most important things is this. Often after surgery you have a critical liver remnant of 30% or 35% of total liver volume before surgery. Then you are very glad to have left this healthy liver remnant without any damage. So you risk less liver insufficiency and less liver failure. Liver failure after cancer surgery always has a potential for death of patient. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. That's very important for all the patients with liver cancer to understand before choosing their liver cancer surgeon. Dr. Christoph Maurer, MD. Correct. Liver-sparing cancer surgery method to treat primary liver cancer and metastatic colon cancer. Gentle liver cancer surgery for best treatment of primary & metastatic liver cancer lesions can help patients recover faster. Usually surgeons interrupt blood supply to the liver. This damages liver function during surgical operation and after the surgery. It is critical to keep good function in the remaining liver. Surgical technique without clamping of liver blood vessels saves more healthy liver tissue. Hepatectomy without interruption of blood supply. Leading liver cancer surgeon uses gentle water-jet dissection of liver tissue to carefully remove the tumor. Liver failure after cancer surgery always has a potential for death of patient. This gentle liver-sparing dissection method keeps more healthy remaining liver. Liver cancer second opinion helps to find best treatment options. Get second opinion on liver cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma from leading US and European experts. Be confident in your liver cancer treatment plan and prognosis. Precision medicine today provides many options for metastatic liver cancer treatment.