The clinical features and natural history of malignant liver tumours

As a broad generalization, there appears to be little intrinsic difference in the biological behaviour of the common malignant liver tumours in respect of presentation, clinical course, clinical features and prognosis. Whatever the tumour's origin, patients present with some combination of abdominal pain, hepatomegaly, weight-loss and general malaise and death occurs within 3 years of the onset of symptoms. It is the state of the non-tumorous liver (cirrhotic/non-cirrhotic) and the anatomical site of the tumour (as with hilar cholangiocarcinomas) that are responsible for any significant differences. Metastatic carcinoid tumours, epithelioid haemangioendotheliomas, stage IV-S neuroblastomas and the fibrolamellar variant of HCC are exceptions to this rule with a genuinely better prognosis.