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. 2010 Mar 15;2(3):136-45.
doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v2.i3.136.

New insights on cholangiocarcinoma

Manuela Gatto  1 , Domenico Alvaro
Affiliations

New insights on cholangiocarcinoma

Manuela Gatto et al. World J Gastrointest Oncol. .

Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a devastating cancer arising from the neoplastic transformation of the biliary epithelium. It is characterized by a progressive increase in incidence and prevalence. The only curative therapy is radical surgery or liver transplantation but, unfortunately, the majority of patients present with advanced stage disease, which is not amenable to surgical therapies. Recently, proposed serum and bile biomarkers could help in the screening and surveillance of categories at risk and in diagnosing CCA at an early stage. The molecular mechanisms triggering neoplastic transformation and growth of biliary epithelium are still undefined, but significant progress has been achieved in the last few years. This review deals with the most recent advances on epidemiology, biology, and clinical management of CCA.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Cholangiocarcinoma; Cholangiocytes; Growth factors; Proliferation.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proposed mechanisms of estrogen-induced proliferation of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) cells. Cross-talk between IGF1 and estrogens has been recently demonstrated to modulate cholangiocarcinoma proliferation, where estrogens act at several points of the IGF1 signal transduction pathway (see ref.# 93,94). In addition, it has been shown that the estrogen proliferative effect on CCA cells is also due to the stimulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) synthesis and secretion (see ref.# 93,94).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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