Incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is increasing worldwide and its prognosis is very poor. Thus, further studies on its clinical characteristics for early detection and on surgical treatment for better prognosis are urgently needed.
A research team from China retrospectively evaluated 5311 liver cancer patients who received resection between October 1999 and December 2003. Of these, 429 (8.1%) patients were diagnosed with ICC, and their clinicopathological, surgical, and survival characteristics were analyzed. Their study will be published on December 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.
Their research demonstrated that hepatitis B infection, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and a-fetoprotein (AFP) are associated with ICC development. CA19-9 levels are associated with lymph node metastases, but inversely with cirrhosis. Radical resection (R0) is the key prognostic factor for ICC. Future studies should focus on evaluation of the molecule-targeted therapy, and whether it can efficiently control this deadly disease so as to improve the survival of the patients.
Reference: Shen WF, Zhong W, Xu F, Kan T, Geng L, Xie F, Sui CJ, Yang JM. Clinicopathological and prognostic analysis of 429 patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(47): 5976-5982 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/5976.asp
Correspondence to: Dr. Jia-Mei Yang, Department of Special Treatment, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China. docjmy@yahoo.com.cn Telephone: +86-21-81875598 Fax: +86-21-65568652
About World Journal of Gastroenterology
World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
Journal
World Journal of Gastroenterology