Cholangiocarcinoma is a cancer that appears and affects the bile ducts. It is a disease that, unfortunately, is usually detected when the disease is very advanced.
This means that it is responsible for 2% of cancer deaths in the world each year, and already represents 15% of all primary liver tumors and 3% of gastrointestinal tumors.
And although it is considered a rare tumor, the (CIBEREHD) researcher, Jesus Banales states that:
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“Its incidence is increasing worldwide so we must stop treating it as an orphan disease.”
Cholangiocarcinoma symptoms
To improve early detection and diagnosis, it is important to know what its symptoms are. And among them we could highlight:
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The skin and the whites of the eyes turn yellow (jaundice).
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Skin itching.
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White stools.
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Pain in the right side of the abdomen, under the ribs.
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Fatigue.
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Unjustified weight loss.
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Fever.
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Night sweats.
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dark urine
One of the symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma is pain on the right side of the abdomen, under the ribs.
Three types of bile duct cancers
Within cholangiocarcinoma there are three types established according to the area where the tumor appears:
- intrahepatic located in the bile ducts found within the liver.
- hilar: here the affected ducts are outside the liver.
- Distal located in those closest to the small intestine.
Risk factor’s
Specialists in this type of pathology point out a series of potential risk factors common to these three types of cholangiocarcinoma, and all of them are related to lifestyle.
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Consume alcohol in excess.
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smoking.
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Overweight.
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Have diabetes.
All of them are very prevalent in Europe and could predispose people at risk to developing cholangiocarcinoma, the specialists indicate.
Improve the diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma
As we have already seen, one of the problems that patients and healthcare providers face when this type of cancer appears is that it is diagnosed too late, which compromises the chances of treatment and, of course, survival.
In order to advance in the diagnosis times, the researchers of the CIBER of Hepatic and Digestive Diseases (CIBEREHD) have prepared the largest and most complete international multicenter study on cholangiocarcinoma.
What the researchers have done is make a ‘map’ of the disease from the study of more than 2,200 patients diagnosed from 26 hospitals in 11 European countries between 2010 and 2019.
At the time of diagnosis, 42.2% had local disease, 29.4% locally advanced, and 28.4% had metastases.
With these data, the general and specific characteristics of the tumor type at the time of diagnosis, the risk factors and the precision of the current biomarkers were compared.
And they also analyzed the similarities and differences between the three subtypes of cholangiocarcinoma, the treatment and its results.
The results indicate that the location of the tumor along the biliary system is associated with different risk factors.
But there is more.
The diagnosis of this type of tumor requires performing a biopsy or cytology on the patient, since the analysis of tumor biomarkers in blood show low sensitivity in early stages of the disease. Cholangiocarcinoma is already responsible for 2% of deaths from cancer, and it can only be treated surgically.
Treatments for cholangiocarcinoma
As explained by the CIBEREHD group leader in , Luis Bujanda“Surgical resection remains the only potentially curative therapy, although it has little therapeutic effect when the cancer is disseminated in the lymph nodes.”
Also highlights the doctor Jesus Banales that
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“We also found that chemotherapy increases the life expectancy of patients, and that the deterioration of the functional status of the patient, the presence of metastases, independently affected the outcome.”
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“In conclusion, our study provides a comprehensive analysis of the diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic aspects of the complex landscape of cholangiocarcinoma.”
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“The results showed that this tumor is mostly diagnosed at an advanced stage, a significant proportion of patients do not receive any cancer-specific therapy, and the prognosis is poor, with limited therapeutic options.”
Consequently, awareness campaigns and educational programs aimed at preventing lifestyle-related risk factors are urgently needed.
In addition, new techniques are needed for early detection of cholangiocarcinoma in high-risk populations to decrease cancer-related mortality.
And the researchers conclude:
“Our findings represent valuable insight for future comparisons with new targeted therapies and the design of next-generation personalized clinical trials.”