Prognostic Impact of Cirrhosis in Patients with Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma following Hepatic Resection

Prognostic impact of cirrhosis in patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) upon hepatic resection remains unclear due to lack of studies in the literature.

A total of 106 resected patients with ICC were reviewed, including 25 patients (23.6%) with cirrhosis and 81 noncirrhotic patients (76.4%). Subgroups of cirrhotic patients with and without hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection were studied.

The impact of cirrhosis on the overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio [HR], 0.901; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.510 to 1.592; P = 0.720) and the relapse-free survival (RFS) (HR, 0.889; 95% CI, 0.509 to 1.552; P = 0.678) revealed no statistical significance. Furthermore, HBV-associated cirrhotic patients and the other cirrhotic patients demonstrated no statistical difference on survival outcomes (1 yr OS, 60.0% versus 70.0%; 5 yr OS, 10.0% versus 0%; P = 0.744; 1 yr RFS, 53.3% versus 30.0%; 5 yr RFS, 10.0% versus 0%; P = 0.279). In patients with cirrhosis, tumor size larger than 5 cm was found to be the foremost factor that was independently associated with poor prognosis.

The presence of liver cirrhosis did not significantly affect prognosis of patients with ICC after resection. Downstaging modality may be in need for patients with ICC underlying cirrhosis, which remains to be validated in future studies.