ESMO Patients Guide
How will my treatment be determined? Your treatment will depend on the staging of your cancer and risk assessment.
Staging Staging is used to describe the extent of the cancer overall; this includes its size and position and whether it has spread from where it started. For biliary tract cancer, staging is usually based on MRI of the biliary tract and CT scans of the chest (Valle et al., 2016).
After diagnosis, imaging scans can show if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body
Staging to determine the size and spread of the cancer is described using a sequence of letters and numbers. For biliary tract cancer, there are four stages designated with Roman numerals I to IV. Generally, the lower the stage, the better the outcome (or prognosis) for the patient. The TNM staging system for biliary tract cancer considers: • How far the tumour has spread into nearby tissues and blood vessels (T). • Whether the cancer has spread to lymph nodes (N). • Whether it has spread to distant sites, or metastases (M).
Staging helps to determine the most appropriate treatment for biliary tract cancer
In addition to the TNM staging system, hilar CCA tumours may be staged using the Bismuth-Corlette classification, which categorises hilar CCAs as types I–IV according to which ducts are affected by the tumour (Valle et al., 2016). These staging systems may seem complicated but your doctor will be able to explain which stage corresponds to your cancer.
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