• Guergana G Panayotova, Flavio Paterno, James V Guarrera, and Keri E Lunsford.
• Division of Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery, Department of Surgery, Center for Immunity and Inflammation, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, 185 South Orange Ave, MSB G586, Newark, NJ, 07103, USA.
• Curr Oncol Rep. 2020 Apr 16; 22 (5): 49.

Purpose Of ReviewCholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a rare malignancy of the biliary ducts that can be classified as intrahepatic, perihilar, or distal based on anatomic location. Although surgical resection can be curative, complete excision with negative margins is often difficult to achieve. In patients with unresectable disease, long-term survival is rarely seen with medical therapy alone. A multimodal treatment approach, including liver transplantation (LT) for select patients with unresectable CCA, should be considered.Recent FindingsWhile currently only an approved indication for early, liver-limited, perihilar cholangiocarcinoma, promising results have been achieved for LT in localized intrahepatic disease. The absolute indication for transplant for intrahepatic tumors is currently the subject of multiple investigations. Continued advances in neoadjuvant/adjuvant therapy and better understanding of tumor biology may further augment the number of candidates for surgical therapies, with liver transplant acting as a promising tool to improve patient outcomes. Thorough consideration for any expansion in the indication for liver transplant in malignancy is necessary in order to balance patient outcomes with utilization of the scarce donor organ resources.

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