Diagnosis and treatment of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: Current status and thoughts / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a primary liver cancer with malignant biological behaviors and ranks only second to hepatocellular carcinoma in incidence rate, and in recent years, the incidence and mortality rates of ICC have been increasing significantly. Since ICC has significant different biological characteristics from hepatocellular carcinoma and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, ICC lacks characteristic clinical symptoms and specific tumor markers and has strong invasion, a low surgical resection rate, and a tendency of recurrence and metastasis after surgery, which results in poor overall prognosis. With the development of molecular biology techniques and the accumulation of diagnosis and treatment experience, there is a gradually deepened understanding of the biological characteristics and clinical outcomes of ICC, and the corresponding surgical diagnosis and treatment strategies and technical means are undergoing profound transformation. At present, multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment, mainly surgery, is the mainstream paradigm for the treatment of ICC, and emphasis on R0 resection and regional lymph node dissection helps to improve clinical outcome and prognosis. However, there are still some problems for consideration on the way to the early diagnosis and the precise, standardized, and individualized treatment of ICC.