Perihepatic lymph node dissection of resectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a primary malignant tumor derived from epithelial cell of the subbranches of the intrahepatic bile ducts, which has characteristics of atypical clinical symptom, high misdiagnosis rate and poor prognosis. Radical surgery in early stage is considered as the only effective measure to cure ICC. Nowadays, it has been a focus and still remains debatable that whether perihepatic lymph node dissection (LND) could improve the long-time survival for ICC patients in consideration of that ICC is easy to migrate via lymphatic system. Therefore, for standardization of surgical treatment of ICC and improvement of patients′ survival, it is quite important to evaluate the necessity of LND in radical resection and benefits of LND in patients highly suspected lymph node metastasis or without lymph node metastasis preoperatively and intraoperatively. Based on the current situation of the global clinical research of LND in ICC, along with the clinical practice experience in authors′ clinical center, this paper focused on the safety and effectiveness of LND aiming to provide some evidences for the indication of LND in ICC patients. Key words: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; Perihepatic lymph node dissection; Survival rate; Lymph node metastasis; Postoperative recurrence