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Treatment of benign liver tumors
As mentioned above, benign liver tumors are usually symptomless, and therefore, they rarely need treatment. Exceptions include when they are causing symptoms or when they are at a risk of becoming malignant -or if they already are-.
The main treatment is surgical with the removal of the tumor with a rim of healthy liver tissue. This serves as a safeguard in case of the presence of cancer that was undetectable. The only exception to surgical treatment is hemangioma. Hemangioma is very vascular and full of blood that neither biopsy nor traditional surgery are attempted. It is usually treated medically if needed and through interventional radiology. An interventional radiologist is a trained doctor who can access the blood vessels supplying the hemangioma using a special catheter and then inject substances that block those blood vessels. When the hemangioma is deprived of the supplying blood vessels, it dies out and shrinks. It can even be removed surgically afterwards when bleeding becomes minimal. The same can be done in other tumors like nodular regenerative hyperplasia and even some cases of hepatocellular carcinoma when surgery is not possible.
