Aim: To explore clinicopathologic characteristics of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) in patients with positive serum a-fetoprotein (AFP).
Methods: One hundred and thirty one patients who underwent surgical dissection for pathologically confirmed ICC were divided into a positive AFP (> 20 ng/mL) group (n = 32) and a negative AFP group (n = 99), whose clinicopathologic features were analyzed and compared.
Results: The positive rate of HBsAg and liver cirrhosis of the positive AFP group was higher than that of the negative AFP group, while the positive rate of CA19-9 (> 37 U/mL) and the lymph node metastasis rate was lower.
Conclusion: ICC patients with positive AFP share many clinicopathologic similarities with hepatocellular carcinoma.