Causes of secondary liver cancer

The cause of secondary cancer in the liver is always a primary cancer somewhere else in the body. If cancer cells from the primary cancer escape into the bloodstream, the liver is a likely place for them to settle.

Sometimes, secondary cancer is found in the liver and yet, even with thorough medical tests, it is not possible to find out where it has spread from. This is because the primary tumour may be too small to detect and is causing no symptoms. This is sometimes called unknown primary cancer.