[Viewpoint of systematic lymphadenectomy for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients]

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma(ICC) is the second common primary liver cancer originated from epithelium of the sub-branches of intrahepatic bile ducts with extremely poor prognosis and lack of effective treatment.The prognosis of ICC is mostly affected by the origin,the type and the size of the tumor as well as the intrahepatic metastasis(satellite lesion) and lymph node metastasis etc.Surgical resection remains the first choice of treatment to patients with ICC.However, there are multiple issues in surgical treatment of ICC, which have not been reached a consensus.Among them, the value of systematic lymphadenectomy during hepatic resection for ICC patient remains one of the hot spot issues.Given the heterogeneity of ICC,we recommend planning the procedure of the radical resection and lymphadenectomy personally, according to the type and origin of the tumor, the number and locationof the lesion.The pre-operation imaging examination and the intra-operation lymph node tracing technique could provide valuable information to help the surgeon decide the range of systematic lymphadenectomy.Routine systematic lymphadenectomy is recommended in the surgical treatment of ICC patients by experienced surgeons even without evidence of lymph node metastasis.The resected lymph tissue should be labeled by the provenance for further study.