Palliative Therapy for Liver and Biliary Neoplasms

Liver and biliary tumors often impose a high symptom burden from pain, obstructive jaundice, pruritus, hepatic encephalopathy, bleeding, and ascites. Pain management requires a multimodal approach including procedural and pharmacologic interventions. Jaundice and pruritus are managed through biliary drainage and medications. Encephalopathy is addressed by avoiding triggers, reducing ammonia via lactulose or interventional shunt modification. Endoscopic and embolization procedures are the mainstay to palliate bleeding. Ascites requires distinguishing cirrhosis-related from malignant causes to determine effective diuretic or procedural interventions. Integrating these "state-of-the-art" palliative strategies improves quality of life.