Can high levels of bilirubin alone cause liver failure in a metastic liver cancer pt?

It's usually the : result of liver failure,bnot the cause of liver failure.In metastatic disease to the liver, the hepatocytes are no longer working properly in conjugating the free bilirubin, so it's backing up & accumulating. Serum bilirubin is considered a true test of liver function, as it reflects the liver's ability to take up, process, and secrete bilirubin into the bile. This is compromised in liver mets.

Let's reframe the ?: The issue isn't the amount of bilirubin causing problems with the liver. The liver is likely infiltrated with tumor mets and therefore is not able to process bilirubin. The elevated bilirubin can have multiple causes but is a symptom of the liver failure rather than the cause. It can also be a symptom of obstruction of the biliary system in the liver by tumor or simply inactivity (cholestasis).

Not by itself: metastatic cancer to liver can cause liver dysfunction. Typically liver function tests become abnormal. Depending on the location it can cause pressure on bile duct drainage and often causes bile elevation, at times recurrent infection in bile system, jaundice, Liver dysfunction can lead to bleeding problems, pain, etc. Hope this helped.

Metastatic cancer...: is often found in the liver, especially if the primary lesion was located in the GI tract. Liver failure for any reason will cause the bilirubin to rise. High bilirubin is a sign of liver impairment but not a cause of it. High bilirubin may also occur as a result of hemolysis (RBC destruction).

No: This is just a biologic marker of severe hepatic dysfunction

Out of sequence: Elevated Bilirubin is the RESULT of liver failure, not the cause. The liver is meant to process and hid rid of bilirubin in Bile. As the liver is failing for any reason (cancer, scarring from cirrhosis etc.) the bilirubin can't get processed and secreted into the bile so it backs up and goes back into the blood stream.

Probably not: • Bilirubin is derived from the breakdown of haem in the red blood cells within the reticuloendothelial system prior to its reaching the liver The bilirubin is in an unconjugated form which has to bind to albumin where it then reaches the liver cells where it is conjugated. to become water soluble. In metatstatic liver disease elevated bilirubin by itself will not effect cell function.