Patterns of recurrence after resection of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: Results from a multi-institutional cohort of 449 patients.

Abstract

267 Background: Outcomes following surgical management of intrahepatic cholangiocarcionma (ICC) have largely focused on overall survival. Data on recurrence following surgery for ICC are limited. We sought to investigate rates and patterns of recurrence in patients following curative intent surgery for ICC. Methods: 449 patients who underwent surgery for ICC between 1973 and 2010 were identified from an international multi-institutional database. Clinicopathologic data, recurrence patterns, and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were analyzed. Results: Most patients had a solitary tumor (70%) with a median tumor size of 6.5 cm. The majority of lesions did not have vascular invasion (69%). Surgical treatment was < hemi-hepatectomy (47%), hemi-hepatectomy (26%), or extended hepatectomy (27%). On pathology, 23% patients had lymph node metastasis and 18% had a microscopically positive (R1) margin. A subset of patients received adjuvant chemotherapy (32%) or chemoradiation (39%). While 5-year overall survival was 31%, 351 (78%) patients recurred with a median RFS time of 13.2 months. First recurrence site was intra-hepatic only (54%), extra-hepatic only (24%), intra- and extra-hepatic (22%). There was no difference in RFS based on site of recurrence (intra-hepatic: 11.2 months; extra-hepatic 11.6 months; intra- and extra-hepatic: 9.6 months; P=0.16). An R1 surgical margin (HR: 1.56, p=0.02) and neural invasion (HR: 1.55, p=0.02) were associated with overall recurrence, while male gender (HR: 1.70, p=0.011), >50% liver parenchyma resection HR: 1.97, p=0.03), primary tumor size (1.05, p=.02), and poor differentiation (HR: 1.92, p=0.01, were associated with intrahepatic recurrence. Receipt of adjuvant therapy was not associated with risk of recurrence (P>0.05). Conclusions: Over 75% of patients developed recurrence following curative intent surgery for ICC. The pattern of failure was distributed relatively equally with half of patients recurring with liver only disease while half had an extrahepatic metastatic site of recurrence. Future efforts need to be directed toward identifying more effective adjuvant regimens given the high rate of recurrence.