Purpose: This study aimed to identify prognostic factors for patients with ICC after a curative resection and clarify the appropriate indications for surgical resection and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy.
Methods: This retrospective study included 81 patients who underwent curative resection for ICC between April 1995 and December 2014. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models were used to analyze the effects of clinicopathological features on overall and recurrence-free survival.
Results: The cumulative 5-year overall survival of 81 patients was 57.2%, and the 5-year recurrence-free survival was 24.0%. The multivariate analysis identified the lymph node status and preoperative CA19-9 levels as independent prognostic factors for overall survival. The 5-year overall survival rates were 79.9% and 38.7% in patients with normal and elevated CA19-9, respectively (p < 0.0001). The 5-year overall survival rates of patients with and without nodal metastasis were 33.7% and 60.9%, respectively (p = 0.0007). After adjusting for prognostic factors identified in a Cox regression analysis, we found that nodal-positive disease was significantly associated with benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy (HR 0.32, p = 0.03).
Conclusions: Surgical resection with curative intent combined with regional lymph node dissection should be indicated for ICC patients with normal CA19-9 levels. Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy should be administered to high-risk patients with a positive nodal status.
Keywords: CA19-9; Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; Lymph node metastasis.