Combined hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CC) is an uncommon subtype of primary liver cancer that has rarely been reported in detail. This study was performed in order to evaluate the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of cHCC-CC in single center.

The clinicopathological features of patients diagnosed and operated with cHCC-CC at Chonbuk National Hospital between July 1998 and July 2007 were retrospectively studied by comparing them with patients with only hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who had undergone a hepatic resection during the same period.

Ten out of 152 patients who had undergone a hepatic resection were diagnosed with cHCC-CC and thus included in this study (M : F=8 : 2, median age: 52±11.1 years). According to the parameters of the 7th American Joint Committee on Cancer T staging, there were 76 (50.0%), 44 (28.9%), 9 (5.9%), 18 (11.8%) and 5 (3.3%) patients with T stages 1, 2, 3a, 3b and 4, respectively. The overall survival period was longer in the HCC only group (68±40.4 months) than in the combined cHCC-CC group (23±40.1 months) ( p <0.0001). The 5-year survival rate was 10% in the cHCC-CC group and 60% in the HCC group ( p <0.0001). The disease free survival for patients with cHCC-HCC and HCC were 16±37.4 and 51±44.3 months, respectively ( p <0.0001). Univariate analysis revealed that age, gender, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), and T stage were statistically significant in terms of patient's overall survival. However, there were no significant clinicopathological factors identified by the multivariate analysis.

Even after the hepatic resection in the HCC, the prognosis is poorer if the patient has cholangiocellular components compared to the usual HCC.