Bile Duct cancer!! what are the survival rates please?

My dad has it and it has spread to his liver, he is having an op on Thursday to remove affected parts, I think they would not bother with the op unless the survival rate is good, would you agree??

These are questions you should be asking the oncologist and surgeon. Cancer treatment is dependent upon the stage of the disease, a patients age and overall health. Since you mention that it has spread to the liver, than your father is dealing with metastatic or what is referred to as stage IV cancer. Staging has more to do with the type of treatment to give a patient than it does prognosis.

You should be reading as much as possible about this disease and the types of treatment options available.

ACS: What is Bile Duct cancer?
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/cri/conten...

NCI: Bile Duct Cancer
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types...

NCCN: Physician Guidelines for Treatment of Hepatobiliary Cancers
http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physic...

You might find information at a support group:

Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation
http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/

it's best to ask the doctor directly. maybe privatly from Dad. or call one of the nurses.

Your bile duct and Gaul bladder are not necessary and you can live a normal life with less than half your liver.........KEN

For a general point of reference, 5 year survival rates might be helpful, of course an individual prognosis is the most accurate as it would take into account other health conditions that may influence the efficacy of treatment. Like others have said, the survival of patients with bile duct cancer will depend on how advanced it is. Statistically, overall only about 21% of patients with extrahepatic (outside the liver) bile duct cancer survive 5 years, because most patients are diagnosed late.

The 5-year survival rate refers to the percentage of patients who live at least 5 years after their cancer is diagnosed. Some of these patients live much longer than 5 years after diagnosis, and 5-year rates are used to produce a standard way of discussing prognosis. The 5-year relative survival rate assumes that people will die of other causes and compares the observed survival with that expected for people without bile duct cancer. That means that relative survival only talks about deaths from bile duct cancer. Of course, 5-year survival rates are based on patients diagnosed and initially treated more than 5 years ago. Improvements in treatment often result in a more favorable outlook for recently diagnosed patients.

Stage
Relative 5-year Survival

0
58%

I
29%

II
22%

III
8%

IV
8%



These numbers come from the American College of Surgeons National Cancer Data Base and are based on 5,987 patients diagnosed from 1993-1998. Nearly two thirds of the patients had stage IV when they were first diagnosed.