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. 2012 May 15;4(5):94-102.
doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v4.i5.94.

Multiple cells of origin in cholangiocarcinoma underlie biological, epidemiological and clinical heterogeneity

Vincenzo Cardinale  1 , Guido Carpino, Lola Reid, Eugenio Gaudio, Domenico Alvaro
Affiliations

Multiple cells of origin in cholangiocarcinoma underlie biological, epidemiological and clinical heterogeneity

Vincenzo Cardinale et al. World J Gastrointest Oncol. .

Abstract

Recent histological and molecular characterization of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) highlights the heterogeneity of this cancer that may emerge at different sites of the biliary tree and with different macroscopic or morphological features. Furthermore, different stem cell niches have been recently described in the liver and biliary tree, suggesting this as the basis of the heterogeneity of intrahepatic (IH)- and extrahepatic (EH)-CCAs, which are two largely different tumors from both biological and epidemiological points of view. The complexity of the organization of the liver stem cell compartments could underlie the CCA clinical-pathological heterogeneity and the criticisms in classifying primitive liver tumors. These recent advances highlight a possible new classification of CCAs based on cells of origin and this responds to the need of generating homogenous diagnostic, prognostic and, hopefully, therapeutic categories of IH- and EH-CCAs.

Keywords: Biliary tree stem/progenitor cells; Cancer stem cells; Cells of origin; Cholangiocarcinoma classification; Cholangiolocarcinoma; Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; Human hepatic stem cells; Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; Peribiliary glands; Risk factors; Targeted therapies.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic diagram of the cell-lineages-of-origin and relative cells-of-origin within and of the related cholangiocarcinoma subtypes. Cells belonging from human hepatic stem cell (hHpSC) lineage or from biliary tree stem/progenitor cell (BTSC) lineage are retained cells of origin of different intrahepatic (IH)- and extrahepatic (EH)-cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) subtypes recently described[17,18,58]. Histology, grossly, the main clinical features and the associated diseases of the CCAs arising within the two cell lineages are showed respectively. HCC: Hepatocarcinoma; CLC: Cholangiolocarcinoma.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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