[Surgical management of resectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma]

Hilar cholangiocarcinoma is a cancer with a poor long-term survival rate (20% at five years), even after curative resection (R0: surgical margins free of tumour). Recent advances have been made in the preoperative management of these patients: clinical imaging, such as magnetic resonance cholangiography, biliary drainage according to the type of hilar obstruction or laparoscopic assessment before portal vein embolization. Extended hemihepatectomy has recently been recognized as the standard curative treatment for hilar bile-duct cancer with concomitant resection of the portal-vein bifurcation as a radical resective procedure. Neoadjuvant-photodynamic therapy could be a new approach to treating hilar cholangiocarcinoma decreasing tumour margins, which is a major prognostic factor.