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Why is the liver so weirdly regenerative?

576 points · 293 comments · jbotz

  1. 0xWTF · · focus · HN ↗
    Hi, your friendly, local pathologist here. I'm the kind of doctor that diagnoses liver diseases, cancer, lots of infections, inflammatory processes, benign tumors, and runs the lab that a lot of other doctors use the results from to inform a lot of their other decisions.

    If you really want to learn about this stuff, Robert Weinberg's The Biology of Cancer is where to start. It introduces concepts starting where a high school student could understand and carefully walks through the history of our development of knowledge until, by the end, the pithy chapters are helping novel concepts for real science flower in your brain all on their own. It's the best book of biological science I have ever read. 10/10, will read again.

    <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wwnorton.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;9780393887655" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wwnorton.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;9780393887655

    1. harhargange · · focus · HN ↗
      Hi Doctor. My sibling recently was diagnosed with liver Mets. Is it really incurable? Docs here refused surgery in 36F
      1. naijaboiler · · focus · HN ↗
        In general, we don’t do curative surgeries for metastatic cancers. The thinking is that it is has spread that much away from where it started, there little point going to cut out where it started alone. Are we then to cut out every place it has spread to and every how it got to those places.

        We do do palliative surgeries if warranted but the intent there is not to cure, but to relieve some symptoms and transiently improve quality of life.

        Please direct any specific questions you have about your sisters case directly to her doctors

        1. harhargange · · focus · HN ↗
          Surely. Since the conversation was already going i asked. Thank you very much for your opinion.
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