Review

Current research in perineural invasion of cholangiocarcinoma

Fang-Zhen Shen¹ , Bing-Yuan Zhang² , Yu-Jie Feng² , Zhuo-Xia Jia³ , Bing An⁴ , Chang-Chang Liu⁵ , Xi-Yun Deng⁶ , Anil D Kulkarni⁶ and Yun Lu²

¹  Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Qingdao University, No 16 Jiangsu Rd, Qingdao 266003, China

²  Second Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Qingdao University, No 16 Jiangsu Rd, Qingdao 266003, China

³  Department of Bio-Information, Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Qingdao University, No 16 Jiangsu Rd, Qingdao 266003, China

⁴  Department of English Teaching, Shandong Medical College, Jinan 250002, China

⁵  Animal Science Laboratory, Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Qingdao University, No 16 Jiangsu Rd, Qingdao 266003, China

⁶  Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6431 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, USA

author email corresponding author email

Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2010, 29:24doi:10.1186/1756-9966-29-24

Published:	10 March 2010

Abstract

Background

Perineural invasion is a common path for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) metastasis, and it is highly correlated with postoperative recurrence and poor prognosis. It is often an early event in a disease that is commonly diagnosed in advanced stages, and thus it could offer a timely therapeutic and diagnostic target if better understood. This article systematically reviews the progress of CCA neural invasion-related molecules.

Methods

Studies were identified by searching MEDLINE and PubMed databases for articles from January 1990 to December 2009, using the keywords "cholangiocarcinoma," "perineural invasion," "nerve growth factor"(NGF), "neural cell adhesion molecule" (NCAM), "matrix metalloproteinase"(MMP), "neurotransmitter," "acetylcholine" (Ach), and "transforming growth factor" (TGF)." Additional papers and book chapters were identified by a manual search of references from the key articles.

Results

From above we found that the molecules NGF, NCAM, MMP, Ach and TGF may have prognostic significance in, and offer clues to the mechanism of CCA neural invasion.

Conclusions

Cholangiocarcinoma's increasing worldwide incidence is especially poignant in view of both the lacking effective therapies, and the fact that it is commonly diagnosed in advanced stages. As CCA neural invasion often appears early, more complete characterization of its molecular pathology could lead to the identification of targets for the diagnosis and therapy of this devastating malignancy.