Stages of liver cancer
The stage of liver cancer tells you how big it is and whether it has spread to other parts of the body. This helps your doctor recommend the best treatment for you.
Primary liver cancer is different to cancer that spreads to your liver from somewhere else in your body. This is called secondary liver cancer or liver metastases.
Find out about secondary liver cancer
Doctors use different systems to stage liver cancer. This page is about stage 3 cancer, which is part of the number staging system. This system has 4 stages, stage 1 to stage 4.
This page also tells you what stage 3 means in the TNM system. This system describes:
the size of the primary tumour (T)
whether the cancer has spread to the (N)
whether the cancer has spread to another part of the body (M)
Find out about the TNM staging system for liver cancer
Last reviewed: 25 Mar 2025
Next review due: 24 Mar 2028
The stage of a cancer tells you how big it is and how far it’s spread. It helps your doctor decide which treatment you need.
There are different types of cancer that start in the liver. The most common type is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Your treatment for liver cancer depends on the stage of your cancer and how well your liver is working. The most common treatments are surgery, heat treatment, drug treatments and radiotherapy.
Liver cancer is a cancer that starts in the liver. You might hear it called primary liver cancer.
Primary liver cancer is cancer that started in the liver. This section is mainly about the most common type of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Secondary liver cancer is when a cancer that started somewhere else in the body has spread to the liver. It is also called liver metastases.
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