Liver cancer, also referred to as hepatic cancer, develops in the tissues of the liver, one of the largest organs of the human body. The liver has a variety of functions, including detoxification, breaking down fats, synthesizing proteins and aiding in digestion.
By traveling through lymph or blood vessels, cancerous cells sometimes travel throughout the body, invading new tissues or organs in a process called metastasis. Metastatic liver cancer is an advanced stage of the disease that started in the liver but has spread to other parts of the body.