Cholangiocarcinoma and Statistics

       One of the main purposes of this blog is to educate people and create awareness.  With that being said, after doing some research I came across some important information about Cholangiocarcinoma.  One of the main things that I kept popping up in the readings about this bile duct cancer was that it’s a very rare disease especially in the United States and the people that are diagnosed with this cancer don’t know that they have until it’s already spread into some major organs.  Since this is the case physicians breakdown the prognosis of this cancer into stages so they know which treatment would be best for the patient.

The above picture is a visual of the organs and their labels that are first affected by Cholangiocarcinomas.

The stages of this cancer are as follows:

Stage 0: Stage 0 Cholangiocarcinomas only involve the lining of the bile ducts and have not spread to lymph nodes or other organs.

Stage I: Cholangiocarcinomas which invade the bile duct or have penetrated through the bile duct, but have not spread to lymph nodes or other organs.

Stage II: The tumor has invaded into adjacent organs, such as the liver, gallbladder or pancreas or if the tumor has invaded a brand of the portal vein or hepatic (liver) artery.  People who have disease which involve lymph nodes near the bile ducts are considered to have Stage II disease.

Stage III:  Tumor which has invaded adjacent organs, such as the colon, stomach, duodenum or abdominal wall.  

Stage IV:  Tumor has spread to other distant organs. 


More information about this can be found on this http://www.oncolink.org/types/article.cfm?c=5&s=85&ss=857&id=9603&p=3 


It is thought that one common cause of cholangiocarcinoma is primary scalloping cholangitis or PSC.  To describe further primary scalloping cholangitis is an inflammatory condition thought to be related to abnormalities in the immune system which can cause blockages within bile ducts that are in the liver.  
Another common cause of cholangiocarcinoma includes genetic disorders that can be associated with other cancers like colon cancer, which causes cysts that develop in the liver. Scarring of the liver known as cirrhosis can also be a huge risk factor for cholandiocarcinoma. Recently found information stated that the association of cirrhosis causing cholandgiocarcinoma is rising in the United States.  


More information about this can be found on this http://www.canliv.org/types-of-hepatobiliary-cancers 


Final Note: Each year there is about 2500 cases of Cholangiocarcinomas.  When compared to other similar diseases like gallbladder cancer there is 5000 cases and there are 15000 cases of hepatocellular cancer.  On average there is 1 Cholangiocarcinoma case per 100,000 persons per year.
As stated in the last post knowledge is power! And it’s so important to know your body and stay healthy in whatever way you can.  A lot of people who are diagnosed with this cancer have a rare survival rate because they didn’t know something was wrong until the cancer was already in stage III and the tumor was spreading into other major organs.  Things that could have helped them was a healthier life style, the knowledge of their body and diseases that run in their families and lastly receiving yearly check ups with their doctors.