If initial tests show that you have secondary cancer of the liver (and it was not previously known that you had a primary cancer elsewhere in your body), your doctor may need to do some further tests. These will be to try to find out where the primary cancer is.

Other tests may be done depending on where the cancer started, to help the doctors decide the best treatment. For example, if the cancer started in the breast, HER2 testing may be done.

All medical tests take time and may be uncomfortable, so your doctor will only arrange tests that are most likely to affect your future treatment. If it is necessary to do such tests, your doctor will discuss them with you first.

PET-CT scan

You may have a PET-CT scan if your doctors are considering surgery as a treatment. This combines a CT scan – which takes a series of x-rays to build up a three dimensional picture with a PET scan – which uses low dose radiation to measure the activity of cells in different parts of the body. It gives more detailed information about the part of the body being scanned. PET-CT scans are a new type of scan and not yet widely available, so you may have to travel to a specialist centre to have one.

You will be asked not to eat for six hours before the scan, although you may be able to drink. You’ll be given an injection of a mildly radioactive substance into a vein, usually in your arm. The radiation dose used is very small. You then need to rest for at least an hour so that the radioactive substance can travel through your body. The scan itself usually takes between 30 and 90 minutes but could be longer.

You should be able to go home after the scan is over.