Doctors label cancer by stages. Stages show how much cancer is in your body, how far it has spread, and how quickly it may grow. Stages help your care team at the Knight Cancer Institute decide the best course of treatment. 

Liver cancer staging is complex. The liver is a complicated organ, and liver cancer comes in different types. In general, though, doctors figure out liver cancer stages through:

• Physical exam
• Imaging tests, such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
• Biopsies, or tissue samples looked at under a microscope

These are stages for hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common liver cancer. The stages range from stage I to IV, or 1 to 4. The lower the number, the less the cancer has spread. For example, stage I liver cancer hasn’t spread outside the liver. 

Tumor Sizes

Stage I

There is one tumor. No veins or lymph nodes are affected.

• Stage IA: The tumor is 2 centimeters or smaller.
• Stage IB: The tumor is larger than 2 centimeters.

Stage II

One of the following:

• A single tumor larger than 2 centimeters has grown into blood vessels.
• There is more than one tumor. None is larger than 5 centimeters.

Stage III

• Stage IIIA: There is more than one tumor, and at least one is larger than 5 centimeters.
• Stage IIIB: One or more tumors have grown into a large liver vein (the portal or hepatic vein).

Stage IV

• Stage IVA: Cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes.
• Stage IVB: Cancer has spread to a distant organ.