Clinicopathological feature of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma without jaundice: A single-center experience

Background/Aims: The prognosis remains unsatisfactory even if the patient undergoes extensive surgery, which is the only curative treatment for these tumors. Therefore, early detection and diagnosis are needed to improve long-term survival. To investigate the clinicopathological feature of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in patients presenting without jaundice compared with the features of tumors in patients presenting with jaundice. Methodology: This was a retrospective study of 50 patients resected for extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. There were 15 non-jaundiced (Group A) and 35 jaundiced patients (Group B). Data on demographic and clinical features, surgical procedures and pathological diagnoses were collected retrospectively. Results: Preoperative mean serum levels of total bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransaminase, alkaline phosphatase and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase were statistically different between the groups. There was also a significant difference in the location of tumors. The distal tumors occurred in 9 non-jaundiced and 31 jaundiced patients (p=0.048). There were no significant differences between the characteristics and preoperative laboratory data of the patients with perihilar tumors and those with distal tumors. Conclusions: We believe that finding the disease in asymptomatic and non-jaundiced patients is very important for their prognosis. Further studies are needed and efforts should also continue to identify patients with suspicious findings.