Review
Copyright ©2007 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2007; 13(25): 3409-3416
Published online Jul 7, 2007. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i25.3409
Early bile duct cancer
Jae Myung Cha, Myung-Hwan Kim, Se Jin Jang
Jae Myung Cha, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kyunghee College of Medicine, East-West Neo Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
Myung-Hwan Kim, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
Se Jin Jang, Department of Pathology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Myung-Hwan Kim, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 388-1 Pungnap-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-736, Korea. mhkim@amc.seoul.kr
Telephone: +82-2-30103180 Fax: +82-2-4760824
Received: March 16, 2007
Revised: March 18, 2007
Accepted: April 10, 2007
Published online: July 7, 2007
Abstract

Bile duct cancers are frequently diagnosed as advanced diseases. Over half of patients with advanced bile duct cancer present with unresectable malignancies and their prognosis has been very poor even after curative resections. Although there has been a need to diagnose bile duct cancer at its early stage, it has been a difficult goal to achieve due to our lack of knowledge regarding this disease entity. Early bile duct cancer may be defined as a carcinoma whose invasion is confined within the fibromuscular layer of the extrahepatic bile duct or intrahepatic large bile duct without distant metastasis irrespective of lymph node involvement. Approximately 3%-10% of resected bile duct cancers have been reported to be early cancers in the literature. The clinicopathological features of patients with early bile duct cancer differ from those of patients with advanced bile duct cancer, with more frequent asymptomatic presentation, characteristic histopathological findings, and excellent prognosis. This manuscript is organized to emphasize the need for convening an international consensus to develop the concept of early bile duct cancer.

Keywords: Early bile duct cancer; Prognosis; Histopathology