PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to compare the clinicopathologic characteristics of the patients with extrahepatic bile duct cancer between the patients who are younger than 54 years and those who are older than 75 years. METHODS: Between 1994 and 2008, 63 patients underwent resectional surgery or palliative treatment for extrahepatic bile duct cancer. The medical records of these patients, including the clinicopathologic characteristics and the other relevant data, were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: There were some differences between the patient groups for the tumor location, distant metastasis and preoperative co-morbidity. The frequency of tumor locations were 58% proximal, 13% middle, 22% distal and 5% diffuse in the young patients and these were 33%, 18%, 48% and 0%, respectively, in the older patient group (p=0.049). The frequency of distant metastasis was 13% in the young patient group and none in the older patient group (p=0.026). The elderly patient group showed more preoperative co-morbidities (68% vs 29%, respectively) (p=0.009), but there was no statistical difference between the two groups for postoperative complications (p=0.301). There was no correlation between the preoperative co-morbidity and the operative complications for both groups. There were no differences in the other clinicopathologic characteristics and the survival rate for both groups. CONCLUSION: Young and elderly patients with extrahepatic bile duct cancer had different clinicopathologic characteristics. Especially, in the young patients, there were more proximally located-tumors and distant metastases. Although there were more preoperative co-morbidities in the elderly patient group over the age of 75, this did not affect the operative complication rate when the co-morbidities were well controlled preoperatively.
Aged ; Bile ; Bile Duct Neoplasms ; Bile Ducts ; Bile Ducts, Extrahepatic ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Palliative Care ; Postoperative Complications ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate