Demographic and clinical evaluation of secondaries to liver

Liver is one of the common sites of metastasis from primary malignancies from different sources. The study was undertaken to know the demographic profile, clinical presentation, investigation findings and primary sources of metastatic lesions in liver among Bangladeshi patients. The study was done on patients with secondary lesion in liver who were admitted into the department of Gastroenterology and department of Hepatology in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University over the period of one year from July 2009 to June 2010. Total 75 patients were included. Mean age of 49.6±6.92 years and the peak incidence was between 41 to 50 years. Seventy six percent (76%) were male and 24% were female and male to female ratio was 3.17:1. Only 5.3% had family history of cancer. More than half of patients had Hb level ≤11gm/dl and two third had raised ESR. All patients showed raised alkaline phosphatase and prolonged prothrombin time found in one forth of patients. Carcinoma stomach was the most common primary source of liver metastasis followed by carcinoma gallbladder, carcinoma pancreas, carcinoma of unknown primary and carcinoma colon.