Endoscopic Management of Cholangiocarcinoma: Putting in Your Two Stents’ Worth

Excerpt

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an uncommon and locally aggressive malignancy of the biliary epithelium, which presents significant challenges to patients and physicians. Without treatment, most patients with CCA follow a dismal and progressive disease course eventuating in loss of life as a result of cholestatic liver failure, biliary infection, or bleeding [1]. In particular, hilar CCA represents an especially challenging entity with respect to relieving obstructive jaundice due to the intense desmoplastic reaction and local tumor extension into biliary radicals that may separately occlude more than one hepatic lobe, sector, or segment [1]. Due to this infiltrative and sometimes piecemeal pattern of obstruction, achieving meaningful drainage can require technically complex or multiple intervention(s). …