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Cholangiocarcinoma

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Cancer

  • 57 Accesses

Synonyms

Bile duct carcinoma; Cholangiocellular carcinoma

Definition

Cholangiocarcinoma refers to malignancy within the biliary duct system (Bile Duct Neoplasms) and is distinct from gallbladder cancer. Cholangiocarcinomas generally have features of biliary tract epithelium, such as a glandular appearance, small regular nuclei, and scant cytoplasm. Tumor cells often express cytokeratins, mucin, and cancer-associated antigen 19-9, a carbohydrate antigen that is used as a tumor marker in serum. It is thought to be a sialylated Lewis blood group antigen. CA19-9 levels are elevated in many gastrointestinal malignancies including cholangiocarcinoma and pancreatic cancer, as well as some nonmalignant conditions such as cholangitis and peritoneal inflammation/infection. Patients who have a genetic deficiency in a fucosyltransferase specified by the Le gene are Lewisa-b- and are unable to make this antigen; thus CA19-9 testing in Lewisa-b- patients can be falsely negative.

  • 95 % of bile duct...

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References

  • de Groen PC, Gores GJ, LaRusso NF et al (1999) Biliary tract cancers. N Engl J Med 341:1368–1378

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  • Patel T (2006) Cholangiocarcinoma. Nat Clin Pract Gastroenterol Hepatol 3:33–42

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  • Roskams T (2006) Liver stem cells and their implication in hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma. Oncogene 25:3818–3822

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  • Xu X, Kobayashi S, Qiao W et al (2006) Induction of intrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma by liver-specific disruption of Smad4 and Pten in mice. J Clin Invest 116(7):1843–1852

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 985870 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, 68198-5870, USA

    Justin L. Mott

  2. Miles and Shirley Fiterman Center for Digestive Diseases, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA

    Gregory J. Gores

Authors
  1. Justin L. Mott
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  2. Gregory J. Gores
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Justin L. Mott .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mott, J.L., Gores, G.J. (2014). Cholangiocarcinoma. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_1106-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_1106-8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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