Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is the second most common primary liver cancer, and survival after surgical treatment is unfavorable due to the advanced clinical stage. Therefore, the prognostic factors after surgical treatment should be clarified in terms of clinicopathological aspects. We analyzed seven patients who underwent operations for ICC between 1990 and 1999. The patients were classified according to the Japan Liver Cancer Study Group and International Union Against Cancer (UICC) TNM classification: we clarified the prognostic factors to determine the disease-free interval. All patients had ICC at an advanced clinical stage at the time of operation. The modes of tumor spread were: the mass-forming type, the periductal infiltrating type, and the combination type without intraductal growth. The majority of patients had poor prognosis after operation. We found that there was a correlation between the disease-free interval after operation and the number of positive factors, including microscopic examination of operative specimens, preoperative serum levels of tumor markers, and the histological type of the tumor (r=0.859; p<0.01). Aggressive surgical therapy may allow long-term survival if the tumor spread is limited to local regions and tumors are the intraductal growth type.

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