Life expectancy for someone diagnosed with liver cancer depends on how widespread the cancer is, notes the American Cancer Society. The life expectancy for a cancer survivor is based on how many survivors live five years after diagnosis. For liver cancer, 2 to 28 percent of survivors see that mark.
Only 2 percent of people with a distant spread of liver cancer are still alive 5 years after treatment, states the American Cancer Society. For people with regional spread of the disease, the 5-year survival rate is 7 percent. For people with only local liver cancer, which is liver cancer that hasn't spread, the 5-year survival rate is 28 percent.
