BACKGROUNDAlthough the sixth edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system for extrahepatic bile duct carcinoma was updated, the system has a problem on T classification due to its ambiguous definition of T1 as “tumor confined to bile duct histologically” and T2 as “tumor invading beyond the bile duct.”METHODSThe authors considered the outermost part of the muscle layer or fibrous tissue as within the extrahepatic bile duct and considered the area starting from large clusters of adipose tissue as beyond the extrahepatic bile duct. After designing a precise definition of the extrahepatic bile duct wall, they analyzed the new AJCC staging system in 222 patients with of extrahepatic bile duct carcinomas. Then, other clinicopathologic variables for prognosis were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analyses.RESULTSThe 5‐year survival rates for patients with tumors that were classified as T1, T2, T3, and T4 were 53.1%, 29.7%, 24.9%, and 0%, respectively. There was a significant difference in survival between patients with T1 tumors and T2 tumors (P < 0.05), but not between patients with T2 tumors and T3 tumors. Significant prognostic factors included depth of invasion (P < 0.005), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.005), and patient age (P < 0.05).CONCLUSIONSBased on a proposed histologic definition, depth of invasion was practical for evaluating the prognosis of patients with middle and upper extrahepatic bile duct carcinomas. Therefore, the authors recommended changing the current pT1 and pT2 classifications to more precise pathologic terminology. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society.
The number of lymph nodes with metastases is known to be an important prognostic factor in carcinomas of many organs. The insufficient sampling of lymph nodes has also been associated with worse outcome in several types of carcinoma. However, the prognostic significance of lymph node dissection is not well characterized in extrahepatic bile duct (EBD) carcinomas. For 209 patients with EBD carcinoma, the total number of retrieved lymph nodes and the number of metastatic lymph nodes were evaluated, and other clinicopathologic variables were correlated with patient survival. The number of retrieved lymph nodes was not significantly correlated with survival in this study. The presence of metastasis to lymph nodes significantly decreased survival of patients with EBD carcinoma. The patients with 5 or more metastatic lymph nodes had significantly worse survival than those with 4 or less metastatic lymph nodes. To evaluate the prognosis of the patients with EBD carcinomas more precisely, the number of metastatic lymph nodes as well as the status of metastasis to lymph nodes should be examined and reported. Based on the present data, we propose that nodal classification should be divided into N1 (metastasis in 1 to 4 regional lymph nodes) and N2 (metastasis in 5 or more regional lymph nodes).
Pancreatic invasion of the extrahepatic bile duct (EBD) carcinomas is known to have a poor outcome. We hypothesized that EBD carcinoma showing shallow invasion to the pancreas may have a better outcome than the usual deep pancreatic invasion. We divided 87 cases of the distal EBD carcinomas into superficial and deep pancreatic invasion groups according to degrees of the pancreatic invasion. The superficial pancreatic invasion group included cases with tumor abutting the pancreatic lobule or pancreatic parenchymal invasion equal to or less than 1 mm from the uppermost portion of the pancreatic lobule or tumors invading into the fibroadipose tissue between pancreatic lobules without parenchymal invasion. The deep invasion group consisted of tumors with more than 1 mm pancreatic parenchymal invasion. The cases with superficial pancreatic invasion showed significantly better survival rate than those with deep pancreatic invasion (Po0.001). Therefore, we recommend that a specific remark on the pathology report about the presence or absence of parenchymal invasion and the depth of invasion of the pancreas is required for managing patients and determining the prognosis. We also recommend that the current pT3 stage of distal EBD carcinomas be subdivided into superficial (pT3a) and deep pancreatic invasion (pT3b). Modern Pathology (2005) 18, 969-975.
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