Abstract
e13536
Background: The diagnosis and treatment of Cholangiocarcinoma continues to pose a challenge. Due to their rarity, few studies have examined the impact of facility type on the survival of patients with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. The hypothesis of this study was that differences in the outcome of patients at different facility types exist. Methods: The National Cancer Database (NCDB) was used to identify patients diagnosed with hilar and extra-hepatic cholangiocarcinoma from 2004 to 2017 using ICD-O-3 histology codes. We used four different cohorts to assess survival amongst those at different facility types: academic/research programs, community cancer programs, comprehensive community center programs, and integrated network cancer programs. Data was analyzed and descriptive statistics and Kaplan Meier curves were produced using SPSS to measure survival in these patients with statistical significance set at α = 0.05. Results: Using the database, a total of 57,146 patients with hilar and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma were identified. Overall median survival in these patients was 11.2 months. Patients at Academic/research programs had a median survival of 14 months (95% CI 14.1-14.8 p < 0.001). In comparison, median survival of 9.7 months (95%CI 9.3-10.2 p < 0.001) and 8.7 months (95% CI 8.4-8.9 p < 0.001) was noted in Integrated network and Comprehensive community cancer programs, respectively. Community cancer programs had the lowest median survival rate in patients with all extrahepatic biliary tract cancers included in our study was 6.9 months (95% CI 6.4-7.7 p < 0.001). Specifically, patients with Klatskin tumors at Academic/Research programs had median survival of 10.3 months (95% CI 8.6-11.9 p < 0.0010) compared to median survival of 3.6 months in patients treated at Community Cancer program. We also studied specific histology types such as papillary and mucinous adenocarcinomas. In papillary adenocarcinomas, there are no statistically significant differences in median survival in different facility types. In mucinous adenocarcinomas, median survival of 26.5 months was found in academic/research program patients compared to 16.2 months in Comprehensive Community Cancer program patients (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Median overall survival in patients with hilar and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma was significantly higher in academic/research programs compared to other facility types. Further studies are needed to ascertain why academic/research programs have superior outcomes in these patients.