Pathology of cholangiocellular carcinoma

Cholangiocellular carcinoma (CCC) is a malignant tumor harboring a poor prognosis, occurring in the liver, gallbladder and in extra- or intrahepatic biliary ducts. The article reviews the topic concerning CCC from the point of view of a surgical pathologist. The paper deals with classification of CCC into an intrahepatic/peripheral and hilar/extrahepatic subtype with different morphology, molecular features and prognosis; together with classical gross pathology, histopathology and natural history of CCC. Hilar and extrahepatic CCC share some biological characteristics with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The review comprises various types of precancerous lesions of biliary tract, summarizes updates in 8th edition of TNM classification and describes the routine issues concerning histopathological diagnostics of CCC, including immunohistochemistry and frozen section methods.