Joe Frazier Loses Battle with Liver Cancer

On Monday, boxing great Smokin’ Joe Frazier died of liver cancer in his Philadelphia home. The two-time heavyweight champ was 67 years old.

Each year, there are approximately 24,120 new cases of primary liver cancer and bile duct cancer. Of those, about 18,910 people die from these cancers.*

The liver is the largest solid organ in the body and is located on the right side of the abdomen. The liver is responsible for such functions as filtering the blood for excess toxins, helping regulate blood sugar, creating bile for digestion, and creating enzymes responsible for blood clotting.

At Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center, patients with liver cancer receive care from a multidisciplinary team of nationally recognized experts in the diagnosis, treatment and research of gastrointestinal cancer.

There are two main types of liver cancer.

1. Primary liver cancer: Cancer that forms in the tissues of the liver.
2. Secondary liver cancer: Cancer that spreads, or metastasizes, to the liver from another part of the body like the breast, lung, thyroid or other gastrointestinal cancers.

Symptoms of Liver Cancer
In its earliest stages, liver cancer is typically not associated with any symptoms. As the disease progresses, symptoms may include:

• Jaundice or yellowing of the skin and eyes
• Fatigue
• Weight loss without dieting
• Loss of appetite
• Feeling of abdominal fullness or bloating
• Pain and/or discomfort on the right side of the abdomen
• Pain or discomfort that occurs in the right shoulder blade

Treating Liver Cancer
Liver cancer treatment may include:

• Surgery including a partial or hepatic lobectomy, radiofrequency ablation or total hepatectomy and liver transplant. The Abramson Cancer Center’s close collaboration with Penn Medicine’s transplant program provides access to comprehensive medical and surgical care for patients who require a liver transplant. Penn Transplant Institute has performed more than 1,500 liver transplants.
• Radiation therapy including intensity-modulated therapy, proton therapy, stereotactic body radiotherapy, 3-D conformal radiation therapy and volume-modulated arc therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells. A radiation therapy schedule usually consists of a specific number of treatments given over an extended period of time. In many cases, radiation therapy is capable of killing all of the cancer cells. Proton therapy at Penn Medicine will soon be used to treat liver cancer, and is currently used to treat recurrent tumors in the digestive tract. Penn Medicine is the only facility in the country treating gastrointestinal cancers in this way.
• Chemotherapy and other biologic therapies including liver-directed therapies such as ethanol injections and chemoembolization of the hepatic artery. Penn Medicine specializes in a team approach to treatment with interdisciplinary care and innovative approaches that use chemotherapy to target tumors prior to surgery. Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. It is delivered through the bloodstream, targeting cancer cells throughout the body.

The Abramson Cancer Center’s multidisciplinary approach to liver cancer diagnosis and treatment provides better outcomes and gives patients access to the most advanced treatment, surgical techniques and clinical trials.

Learn more about the gastrointestinal cancer treatment at the Abramson Cancer Center here.

Watch presentations from the Focus On Gastrointestinal Cancers conference here.