How Liver Works

It helps your body digest food and absorb nutrients.

The liver produces bile, a substance your body needs to absorb vitamins.

Equally important, the liver filters drugs, alcohol, chemicals and environmental toxins from your blood. It can filter up to 1 1/2 quarts of blood each day. Its role as a blood filter makes the liver susceptible to secondary (metastatic) cancers.

These are cancers whose cells can spread to the liver through the bloodstream from other parts of the body.