Liver cancer spread to bones life expectancy

ON THIS PAGE: You will find information about the number of people who are diagnosed with liver cancer each year. You will also read general information on surviving the disease. Remember, survival rates depend on several factors. Use the menu to see other pages.

Table of Contents Show

Can liver cancer spread to other organs?
Liver cancer bone mets
A revolutionary ultrasound treatment for painful liver cancer bone mets
How long can you live with bone and liver cancer?
What is the prognosis when cancer spreads to the bones?
What is the last stage of liver cancer?
What is the life expectancy of someone with metastatic liver cancer?

This year, an estimated 41,260 adults (28,600 men and 12,660 women) in the United States will be diagnosed with primary liver cancer. From 1980 to 2015, the incidence of liver cancer more than tripled. However, the rate has stabilized recently. Between 2013 and 2017, incidence rates in women increased by approximately 2% annually, while remaining steady in men. However, men are almost 3 times more likely than women to be diagnosed with the disease. Worldwide, an estimated 905,677 people were diagnosed with liver cancer in 2020.

It is estimated that 30,520 deaths (20,420 men and 10,100 women) from this disease will occur in the United States this year. For men, liver cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death. It is the seventh most common cause of cancer death among women. The overall liver cancer death rate more than doubled between 1980 and 2013, but it stabilized through 2019. Between 2014 and 2018, the liver cancer death rate in women increased by 1% annually but remained steady in men.

Worldwide, liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death. In 2020, an estimated 830,180 people around the world died from the disease. When compared with the United States, liver cancer is much more common in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. In some countries, it is the most common cancer type.

The 5-year survival rate tells you what percent of people live at least 5 years after the cancer is found. Percent means how many out of 100. The general 5-year survival rate for liver cancer in the United States is 20%, compared to 3% 40 years ago. Survival rates depend on several factors, including the stage of the disease.

For the 43% of people who are diagnosed with liver cancer at an early stage, the 5-year survival rate is 35%. If the cancer has spread to surrounding tissues or organs and/or to the regional lymph nodes, the 5-year survival rate is 12%. If the cancer has spread to a distant part of the body, the 5-year survival rate is 3%. However, even if the cancer is found at a more advanced stage, treatments are available to help many people with liver cancer experience a quality of life similar to that of before their diagnosis, at least for some time. If surgery is possible, it generally results in higher survival rates across all stages of the disease.

It is important to remember that statistics on the survival rates for people with liver cancer are an estimate. The estimate comes from annual data based on the number of people with this cancer in the United States. Also, experts measure the survival statistics every 5 years. This means the estimate may not reflect the results of advancements in how liver cancer is diagnosed or treated from the last 5 years. Talk with your doctor if you have any questions about this information. Learn more about understanding statistics.

Statistics adapted from the American Cancer Society's (ACS) publication, Cancer Facts & Figures 2022 and Cancer Facts & Figures 2021; the ACS website; and the International Agency for Cancer Research website. (All sources accessed January 2022.)

The next section in this guide is Medical Illustrations. It offers a drawing of the location of the liver in the body. Use the menu to choose a different section to read in this guide.

Liver cancer is a disease that may have no symptoms in its early stages. It is often diagnosed at a stage when it’s beyond cure. It occurs most often in people with certain risk factors, including Hepatitis B or C, alcohol abuse/cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, and obesity. In the U.S., there are about 30,000 new cases each year. Men are more likely to develop liver cancer than women.

Can liver cancer spread to other organs?

Today, there are many effective treatments that help control the growth of liver cancer, so people are living longer with this disease. Ironically, though, this increases the chances of “breakaway” tumor cells escaping into the bloodstream, where they can eventually reach other organs and start growing there. This is called metastatic liver cancer to distinguish it from a primary cancer. For example, lung cancer means a primary cancer that has originated in the lung, whereas a liver cancer tumor that implants itself in the lung is called metastatic liver cancer to the lung (also called liver cancer lung mets).

Liver cancer most often spreads to the lung. Unlike prostate cancer, which commonly spreads to bone, liver cancer mets to bone are less frequent. According to some estimates, 3-20% of liver cancer patients will have liver cancer bone mets.1 About 50-75% of liver cancer bone mets occur in the spine.2

Liver cancer bone mets

Though liver cancer isn’t highly drawn to bone, if it is able to implant there it “hijacks” the growth factors and rich blood supply that sustain healthy bones. This damages the bone, leading to symptoms that characterize bone mets from any cancer:

Pain in the bone
Weakened bone that breaks easily (spontaneously or the result of an accidental fall or blow)
Compression of the spinal cord if the bone mets are growing in the spine. This means pressure on the nerves of the spinal cord that can cause weakness, urinary problems, numbness or radiant pain, movement difficulties and even paralysis
As bone mets destroy bone, calcium is released into the bloodstream causing elevated blood levels. High calcium levels can lead to loss of appetite, extreme thirst, nausea, etc.

While any of the above symptoms can be very discouraging, even depressing, bone pain that becomes excruciating literally robs a person of quality of life. Extreme pain is crippling, and difficult to control using medication. Therefore, procedures such as surgery or radiation treatments may be done as palliative measures. Palliation is not curative, but is done as a way to alleviate pain and discomfort. This is important, since ongoing liver cancer treatments can prolong life – but longer life while having severe pain is not a prospect many patients embrace. On the other hand, if the source of pain is removed, liver cancer patients welcome medical protocols that extend life.

Until recently, conventional palliative interventions were either surgery or radiation. However, pain management was not always adequate or lasting. In addition, there are drawbacks to either approach. Surgery comes with a hospital stay, risk of infection, and post-surgery pain while waiting to see if it was successful in reducing or eliminating the source of bone pain. With radiation, its effectiveness is not known for up to several weeks because radiation takes time to destroy the nerve cells – and many patients either don’t like the idea of radiation exposure, or they have already been treated with radiation for other problems and therefore can’t have any more.

A revolutionary ultrasound treatment for painful liver cancer bone mets

A new type method of treating painful bone mets avoids the drawbacks of surgery and radiation while offering efficient pain control. It is called MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS). Unlike surgery, MRgFUS is noninvasive and does not create additional short-term pain. Unlike radiation, it brings pain relief in 3-7 days.

MRgFUS is a treatment that focuses ultrasound “beams” or sound waves onto a target where they are able to create destructive heat. This targeted heat deadens the nerves that receive and transmit pain messages. In certain cases, the treatment can be tailored to destroy all or part the bone lesion as well, but the primary purpose is to greatly reduce the pain. MRgFUS succeeds without invasively entering the body, as in surgery, and there is no radiation involved.

A recent study compared MRgFUS vs. radiation therapy (RT) for relieving painful bone mets. As the authors wrote, “MRgFUS was more efficient than RT in terms of the time course of pain palliation as it yielded a significantly higher response rate at 1 week after treatment.”3 Specifically, 71% of MRgFUS patients had pain relief at one week, compared with only 26% of RT patients.

For patients with liver cancer bone mets who are having intense pain, the Sperling Medical Group is proud to offer the ExAblate® MRgFUS system. For more information, contact our Center, or visit our website.

1 Kim S, Chun M, Wang H, et al. Bone Metastasis from Primary Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Characteristics of Soft Tissue Formation. Cancer Research and Treatment: Official Journal of Korean Cancer Association. 2007;39(3):104-108. doi:10.4143/crt.2007.39.3.104.
2Rim CH, Choi C, Choi J, Seong J. Establishment of a Disease-Specific Graded Prognostic Assessment for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients with Spinal Metastasis. Gut and Liver. 2017;11(4):535-542. doi:10.5009/gnl16486.
3 Lee HL, Kuo CC, Tsai JT, Chen CY et al. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound versus conventional radiation therapy for painful bone metastasis: a matched-pair study. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2017 Sep 20;99(18):1572-1578.

How long can you live with bone and liver cancer?

The relative 5-year survival rate for liver cancer that has spread to lymph nodes or other nearby tissues is 11 percent , according to the American Cancer Society. When the cancer has spread to the lungs, bones, or other organs, the relative 5-year survival rate is 2 percent .

What is the prognosis when cancer spreads to the bones?

Most patients with metastatic bone disease survive for 6-48 months. In general, patients with breast and prostate carcinoma live longer than those with lung carcinoma. Patients with renal cell or thyroid carcinoma have a variable life expectancy.

What is the last stage of liver cancer?

Advanced (metastatic) cancers. Cancers that have spread to lymph nodes or other organs are classified as advanced. These would include stages IVA and IVB cancers in the TNM system. Most advanced liver cancers cannot be treated with surgery.

What is the life expectancy of someone with metastatic liver cancer?

The outlook for liver metastases tends to be poor, with a 5-year survival rate of roughly 11%. Treatments can help reduce the symptoms and shrink the tumor, but typically, there is no cure for liver metastases.