Liver cancer, bile duct cancer and gallbladder cancer: how are they different? | CION Cancer Clinics

No. They are three separate cancers that start in three different kinds of cell, sitting close together in the upper right of the abdomen. Each one is tested, staged and treated in its own way, so the name on your report decides which pages, which doctors and which medicines apply to you.

Where each one starts

Primary liver cancer, usually called hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), starts in the main working cells of the liver. Bile duct cancer, called cholangiocarcinoma, starts in the thin tubes that carry bile. Some of those tubes run inside the liver and some run outside it. Gallbladder cancer starts in the small pouch under the liver that stores bile between meals.

The fourth thing people call liver cancer

Before reading further, check one word on the report. If it says "metastases", "secondary deposits" or "spread to the liver", the cancer began somewhere else, often the bowel, breast, pancreas or stomach, and is treated as that cancer. This is the commonest reason a scan shows cancer in the liver. Our page on primary and secondary liver cancer explains that difference first.

The three cancers respond to different things. A treatment that works well for one may do little for another, so the type has to be settled before anyone starts.

Liver cancer depends on the liver

In HCC, the team weighs the tumour and the health of the rest of the liver together. Options include surgery, ablation, TACE, transplant at a licensed transplant centre, and medicines such as immunotherapy or targeted therapy. CION coordinates the procedures through accredited partner hospitals and gives the medicines at its own centres.

Bile duct cancer depends on its DNA

Bile duct tumours should have their DNA tested, called molecular profiling, because some carry changes that a targeted medicine can act on. Not every tumour has one, and a result does not promise a response, but it is worth asking for. Read more on bile duct cancer inside the liver.

Gallbladder cancer has its own home

Gallbladder cancer is planned around surgery and chemotherapy and is covered on our gallbladder cancer pages. The medicines used overlap with bile duct cancer, which is why you will see them discussed together on chemotherapy for gallbladder and bile duct cancer.

It cannot tell you which of these cancers you have, or whether a spot on your scan is cancer at all. Only the team holding your scans, blood tests and tissue can answer that, and sometimes they need more than one test before they are sure.

It cannot read your report for you

Reports often use cautious phrases such as "suspicious for" or "cannot exclude". Those words mean the radiologist wants more information, not that a diagnosis has been made. Bring the report to an oncologist rather than matching it word for word against pages online.

Who this does not apply to

If your report says the liver lesions are metastases, this comparison is not your starting point. Read what a report of liver metastases means instead. If the patient is a young child, liver tumours in children are a different group again, covered on our hepatoblastoma page.