Bile Duct Cancer Symptoms

The bile ducts are small tubes that connect different organs.

Bile duct cancer symptoms.

Even if your cancer can t be cured you can have surgery to treat the blocked bile ducts and relieve some of your symptoms. The bile ducts are thin tubes that connect the liver to the small intestine and remove bile from the liver and gallbladder. Symptoms tend to depend on whether the cancer is in ducts inside the liver intrahepatic or in ducts outside the liver extrahepatic and include. Bile duct cancer symptoms usually don t show until the cancer has grown large enough to block the bile ducts.

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. 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. Normally bile is made by the liver and released into the intestine.

Learn more about the types causes risk factors diagnosis treatment and. Bile duct cancer also called cholangiocarcinoma is a cancer that s found anywhere in the bile ducts. Typically the surgeon either inserts a tube to hold the duct open or. Bile ducts connect your liver to your gallbladder and to your small intestine.

Early bile duct cancer may not have any symptoms or they can be hard to spot. Bile duct cancer symptoms typically do not appear in the early stages of the disease. The symptoms vary depending on where the cancer is in the bile ducts. 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 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. Any symptoms that you do have are often quite vague such as feeling sick and loss of appetite. Bile duct cancer is also called cholangiocarcinoma. Cholangiocarcinoma is cancer that forms in the slender tubes bile ducts that carry the digestive fluid bile.

When bile duct cancer does cause symptoms it s usually because a bile duct is blocked. Bile duct cancer is a rare form of cancer with approximately 2 500 new cases. 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.