Bile Duct Cancer Symptoms

Early bile duct cancer may not have any symptoms or they can be hard to spot.

Bile duct cancer symptoms.

Cholangiocarcinoma is cancer that forms in the slender tubes bile ducts that carry the digestive fluid bile. Two of the other common symptoms of bile duct cancer are a high fever chills and night sweats. Bile ducts are small but long tubes that carry bile fluid produced by the liver. Bile duct cancer forms inside your bile duct a thin tube that moves a fluid called bile to your small intestine.

The symptoms vary depending on where the cancer is in the bile ducts. This condition also known as bile duct cancer is an uncommon form of cancer that occurs mostly in people older than age 50 though it can occur at any age. Bile duct cancer also called cholangiocarcinoma is a cancer that s found anywhere in the bile ducts. Bile duct cancer symptoms usually don t show until the cancer has grown large enough to block the bile ducts.

Bile duct cancer is a rare form of cancer with approximately 2 500 new cases. Bile duct cancer symptoms typically do not appear in the early stages of the disease. Symptoms tend to depend on whether the cancer is in ducts inside the liver intrahepatic or in ducts outside the liver extrahepatic and include. The bile ducts are small tubes that connect different organs.

Learn more about the types causes risk factors diagnosis treatment and. When bile duct cancer does cause symptoms it s usually because a bile duct is blocked. Normally bile is made by the liver and released into the intestine. Cancers that start in the liver bile ducts intrahepatic bile duct cancer often don t cause any specific symptoms until they are more advanced.

Bile ducts connect your liver to your gallbladder and to your small intestine. Bile duct cancer arises from the cells that line the bile ducts the drainage system for bile that is produced by the liver bile ducts collect this bile draining it into the gallbladder and finally into the small intestine where it aids in the digestion process. Typically the surgeon either inserts a tube to hold the duct open or. Any symptoms that you do have are often quite vague such as feeling sick and loss of appetite.

Even if your cancer can t be cured you can have surgery to treat the blocked bile ducts and relieve some of your symptoms. It is important to get any symptoms of bile duct cancer checked. If you often have chills shivering and fever these may be signs of the cancer. Bile duct cancer is also called cholangiocarcinoma.