An analysis of intrahepatic lymphatic invasion in the patient with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

起源于肝内胆管的肝内胆管细胞癌(ICC)是第二常见的肝脏恶性肿瘤。在接受根治性切除的ICC患者中，淋巴结转移被认为是影响生存的重要预后因素之一。因此，对于术前被诊断为有转移性淋巴结的患者，在手术治疗ICC的过程中进行淋巴结清扫的价值或手术指征仍存在争议。在本研究中，我们评估了肝内淋巴管侵犯与淋巴结转移的相关性。我们还调查了ICC患者根治性切除后的预后，以分析淋巴清扫对生存率和复发的影响。

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) arising from the intrahepatic bile duct is the second most frequent hepatic malignancy. Lymph node metastasis is known to be one of strong prognostic factors for survival in the patients undergoing curative resection for ICC. Therefore, the value of lymph node dissection during surgical treatment for ICC or indication of the resection for the patients who are preoperatively diagnosed to have metastatic lymph nodes is still in debate.In this study, we evaluated correlation between intrahepatic lymph vessel invasion and lymph node metastasis. We also investigated the outcomes of ICC patients following curative resection to analyze the influences of lymph node dissection on survival and recurrence.