If you or someone you care about has been diagnosed with primary liver cancer (cancer that starts in the liver), it’s important to know that UMass Memorial Medical Center is home to one of the only hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) programs in the entire Northeast. 

This comprehensive, multidisciplinary program provides specialized care for patients with HCC while they wait for a transplant. This means you receive expert, attentive care to keep you as healthy as possible until a donor organ becomes available.

I'm in need of a transplant

A liver transplant to treat liver cancer?

HCC is a type of liver cancer that’s most commonly seen in patients with cirrhosis, which can result from Hepatitis B or C, alcohol abuse, autoimmune diseases of the liver, chronic inflammation of the liver, fatty liver disease or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and hemochromatosis.

Until recently, patients with HCC had few options for treatment or cure because their cancer often wasn’t diagnosed until it was quite advanced. And only 10 to 20 percent of liver tumors can be completely removed with traditional surgery.

But with today’s advances in medical knowledge and transplant techniques, a liver transplant has proven to be the best treatment option for appropriately selected patients with HCC—giving hope to a growing number of people with this type of liver cancer.

Comprehensive, multidisciplinary expertise

The HCC Program draws on the expertise of the UMass Memorial cancer specialists, including:

• Medical oncology
• Transplant hepatology
• Surgical oncology
• Transplant surgery
• Interventional radiology
• Radiology
• Radiation oncology
• Psychiatry
• Social work

Learn more

If you would like to learn more about the UMass Memorial Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) Program, please contact us.