Surgical Treatment and Outcomes in Carcinoma of the Extrahepatic Bile Ducts

Abstract
ADENOCARCINOMA OF the extrahepatic bile ducts, or cholangiocarcinoma, is a rare malignant neoplasm. In the United States, it is estimated that extrahepatic biliary cancers will represent less than 1% of all new cancers and less than 3% of gastrointestinal cancers in the year 2000. During the same period, approximately 50% of these patients will die of their disease.1 Because of this, few individual surgeons and only a handful of institutions have gained significant experience with these tumors.