While stage 4 liver cancer is not curable, it is not always immediately fatal, and life expectancy can vary significantly. The outlook depends on many factors, and statistics do not reflect individual prognoses.
Average Survival Time
With treatment: The median survival time for stage 4 liver cancer with treatment is approximately nine months, though some studies suggest a range of 4 to 11 months.
But patients can live even longer with stage 4 liver cancer, with the right treatment, including CyberKnife radiation therapy. More on that later in the blog.
Without treatment: The median survival time without active treatment is less than four months.
5-year Survival Rate
For liver cancer that has spread to distant areas of the body, the 5-year survival rate is about 3%. This means that about 3 out of 100 people with stage 4 liver cancer will live for at least five years after diagnosis.
For cancer that has spread to nearby tissues and lymph nodes, the 5-year survival rate is higher, at about 12%.
Factors That Influence Prognosis
Your individual prognosis is determined by a doctor considering many factors, including:
Extent and location of spread: Where the cancer has metastasized affects the outlook.
Overall health: Your general health, including any other medical conditions, is an important factor.
Liver function: The health of your liver tissue not affected by cancer can impact survival.
Response to treatment: How your cancer responds to therapies like targeted therapy and immunotherapy can alter the prognosis.
Age: Younger patients tend to have a better prognosis than older ones.
Advances in treatment: Survival statistics are based on data that is at least several years old. Newer treatments have the potential to improve outcomes.
The Importance of Treatment
For many with stage 4 liver cancer, treatment is focused on managing symptoms and improving quality of life rather than on a cure. Despite the challenging statistics, effective treatments can help extend life beyond the average prognosis.
New Treatment Options
While surgery is typically not an option for metastatic liver cancer, several advanced treatments aim to extend and improve a patient’s quality of life.
Targeted Therapy: Drugs like sorafenib (Nexavar) and lenvatinib (Lenvima) block specific pathways that help cancer cells grow.
Immunotherapy: Drugs like atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and nivolumab (Opdivo) help the body’s own immune system fight the cancer. Recent clinical trials show promise by combining immunotherapy with other therapies.
Interventional Radiology: Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE): Delivers chemotherapy directly to the tumor and blocks its blood supply.
Radioembolization (Y-90): Injects tiny radioactive beads into the liver’s blood vessels.
Histotripsy: An FDA-approved technology that uses focused ultrasound energy to destroy liver tumors non-invasively.
Targeted Radiation Therapy: CyberKnife offers patients a non-invasive option for both primary and metastatic liver cancer treatment with great success.
It is used to treat lesions in people who are not candidates for surgery, those who choose not to have surgery, or those who have failed chemotherapy treatment.
Treating liver cancer with traditional radiation therapy is not an option due to the sensitivity of liver tissue to radiation. CyberKnife’s tracking technology eliminates that risk.
The system can continuously pinpoint and follow a tumor’s exact location as the patient breathes normally while on the treatment table, enabling 100 to 200 radiation beams to attack only the tumor from all different angles, leaving healthy tissue unharmed.
It kills the tumor cells and over time the tumor disappears. CyberKnife Radiotherapy delivers high doses of radiation in three to five treatments with excellent control rates.
If there is a recurrence, we can often treat it again, even if it is close to the previously treated area.
The CyberKnife treatment is completely pain free. Patients dress comfortably in their own clothes and can bring music to listen to during the treatment. Nothing will be required of the patient during the treatment, except to relax. In fact, patients often sleep through the treatment.
There are generally only minimal side effects from CyberKnife treatments, which may include mild nausea and fatigue.
You will be required to have follow-up scans in four to eight weeks. (CT, MRI, or PET scan) Your doctor will determine when those are necessary. The tumor will take some time before it is not active or undetectable.
Response to treatment varies from patient to patient. However, clinical experience has shown that most patients respond very well to CyberKnife treatments.
If you’ve been diagnosed with liver cancer you owe it to yourself to contact CyberKnife Miami to see if you might be a candidate for CyberKnife. Call (800) 204-0455 today.