Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with marked hypervascularity

Two rare cases of small intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with marked hypervascularity are reported. Dynamic computed tomographic and magnetic resonance images of the two cases revealed strong enhancement of the whole tumor on the early phase and prolonged enhancement on the late and delayed phases. In both cases, the tumors turned out to be well-differentiated tubular cholangiocarcinoma that contained a large number of tumor cells and few interstitial fibrous tissues. These results suggest that some intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma should be differentiated from other hypervascular hepatic tumors, especially hepatocellular carcinoma, and that prolonged enhancement of the tumor on late and delayed phases of dynamic images could be of diagnostic value.