Cholangiocarcinoma with a background of hepatitis B virus-associated cirrhosis

Recently, hepatitis virus-associated chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis has been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of cholangiocarcinoma (CC). A 52-year-old man was diagnosed as CC with a background of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-dependent cirrhosis. A minute hepatic tumor was found during the follow-up, and was diagnosed as CC on percutaneous biopsy. The patient died of hepatic failure and an autopsy revealed the tumor to be a well to moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. An immunohistological analysis of HBV X gene-encoded protein (HBX) was neither detected in the cancerous nor in the noncancerous tissue. No oncogenic role of the virus was verified in this case.