THE INFLUENCE OF LYMPH NODE STATUS ON THE OVERALL SURVIVAL IN SURGICALLY TREATED HILAR CHOLANGIOCARCINOMA

Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma represents an extremely aggressive digestive malignancy associated with very poor survival rates in the absence of a treatment with curative intent. Moreover, an important per cent of patients are diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease, when resection with curative intent is no longer feasible. When it comes to cases which can be submitted to surgery, radical resection, including lymph node dissection, seems to be one of the most important therapeutic strategies in order to improve survival. This is a literature review of the most relevant studies which were focused on analyzing the impact of lymph node status on the overall survival of surgically treated hilar cholangiocarcinomas

Keywords

• hilar cholangiocarcinoma
• resection
• lymph node dissection