Aim: To determine the factors associated with early recurrence in patients with distal cholangiocarcinoma after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD).
Patients and methods: Sixty-one patients with distal cholangiocarcinoma were enrolled. The clinical data and histopathological findings were collected retrospectively.
Results: Patients were divided into two groups as follows: 16 patients (26%) with early recurrence and 45 patients (74%) with late recurrence or no recurrence. In a univariate analysis, lymph node metastases (P = 0.0016), lymphatic invasion (P < 0.0001), pancreatic invasion (P = 0.0006), and perineural invasion (P = 0.0004) were significantly different between the two groups. In a multivariate analysis, a higher incidence of lymphatic invasion was the only independent risk factor for early recurrence (odds ratio: 5.772, 95% confidence interval: 1.123-29.682, P = 0.036). Moreover, the disease-free survival and overall survival of patients with a higher incidence of lymphatic invasion were significantly worse compared with those of patients with a lower incidence of lymphatic invasion (P < 0.001).
Conclusions: Our study showed that a higher incidence of lymphatic invasion was a significant predictor of early recurrence in patients with distal cholangiocarcinoma. Therefore, lymphatic invasion might be useful in determining the optimal adjuvant therapy in the early postoperative stage for distal cholangiocarcinoma.