Loading
Cystic duct carcinoma is a bile duct cancer arising in the short tube that joins the gallbladder to the main bile duct. It is staged as a gallbladder cancer under the AJCC system, and behaves better when it stays inside the duct than when it grows beyond it. It is so rare that its treatment borrows from gallbladder and bile duct cancer.
The cystic duct runs from the gallbladder neck to the common hepatic duct. Cancers arising here have been classified sometimes with the extrahepatic bile ducts and sometimes with the gallbladder; the AJCC staging manual has placed the cystic duct in the gallbladder chapter since its 7th edition (2010) (Prasoon 2019), and the WHO classification covers the gallbladder and extrahepatic bile ducts in one chapter. A 2025 Korean study compared 38 cystic duct cancers with 345 gallbladder and 349 distal bile duct cancers: overall survival did not differ between the three, the gallbladder T categories separated survival in cystic duct cancer better than the bile duct categories did, and tumours confined within the duct (Nakata type 1) did significantly better than those extending beyond it, leading the authors to propose a two-tier T category (T1 confined to the duct, T2 beyond it) (Kim 2025). Cancers can also arise in the cystic duct remnant years after cholecystectomy; jaundice, haemobilia and positive bile cytology led to the diagnosis in one reported case, staged pT1b N0 after bile duct resection (Prasoon 2019).
What differs in treatment: the tumour sits at the junction with the common duct, so resection usually means excision of the extrahepatic bile duct with hepaticojejunostomy and regional lymphadenectomy, often with the gallbladder and liver bed as in a radical cholecystectomy, and the cystic duct margin of any gallbladder specimen is where such a tumour is first suspected. Systemic treatment follows the biliary tract cancer trials. No trial has studied cystic duct cancer on its own.
Very rare: 38 cases against 345 gallbladder and 349 distal bile duct cancers in the Korean series that defined its staging (Kim 2025); only a handful of cancers arising in the remnant cystic duct after cholecystectomy have ever been reported (Prasoon 2019).
Most pancreatic cancers arise in the head next to the bile duct, which is why jaundice is the presenting sign; bile duct cancers are named by where along the tree they sit.
Same organ: Glucagonoma, VIPoma, Somatostatinoma, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (perihilar and distal), Biliary tract cancer (all types), Neuroendocrine tumours, Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, Grade 3 well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumour, Extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma, Gallbladder cancer, Gallbladder adenocarcinoma, Papillary carcinoma of the gallbladder, Mucinous carcinoma of the gallbladder, Adenosquamous and squamous carcinoma of the gallbladder, Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder, Incidental gallbladder cancer (found after cholecystectomy), Carcinoma in situ and dysplasia of the gallbladder, Ampullary cancer (ampulla of Vater), Resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Borderline resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, KRAS G12C-mutant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, KRAS wild-type pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, BRCA or PALB2-mutant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Mismatch repair deficient (MSI-high) pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma, Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm and other pancreatic cystic precursors, Pancreatoblastoma, Adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas, Colloid (mucinous non-cystic) carcinoma of the pancreas, Undifferentiated carcinoma of the pancreas with osteoclast-like giant cells, Invasive carcinoma arising in an intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN-associated carcinoma), Mucinous cystic neoplasm of the pancreas with associated invasive carcinoma (MCN-associated carcinoma), Solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of the pancreas
Extrahepatic bile duct resection with regional lymphadenectomy, with cholecystectomy and liver bed resection as for radical cholecystectomy when the gallbladder is still present.
Country and place are remembered in this browser only. A postcode is sent to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to find coordinates when you press the button; nothing else leaves your device.
Query for this cancer: (TITLE:"Cystic duct carcinoma" OR ABSTRACT:"Cystic duct carcinoma" OR TITLE:"Cystic duct cancer" OR ABSTRACT:"Cystic duct cancer" OR TITLE:"Carcinoma of the cystic duct" OR ABSTRACT:"Carcinoma of the cystic duct" OR TITLE:"Remnant cystic duct carcinoma" OR ABSTRACT:"Remnant cystic duct carcinoma") AND (treatment OR therapy OR trial OR survival OR diagnosis). Results are unfiltered search hits about Cystic duct carcinoma, not a curated reading list.
The targets of this cancer's medicines and the ones linked to it directly.
Cases by country, the UK and NHS pathway and other country lenses, the expert centres with trials on record, and the centres named on this cancer's subtypes.
One section per setting: the options named, what each is for, the trials behind them, the recorded trade-offs and the questions to ask.
Persistent headache with extreme tiredness, nausea, dizziness on standing or low blood pressure. Vomiting, severe weakness or collapse is adrenal crisis.
Bleeding that does not stop by itself, bleeding from more than one site, or new bruising in several places or one large area.
No pharmacokinetic interactions expected (antibody). See the irAE guide for toxicity management.
Immunotherapy can attack hormone-producing glands: most often the thyroid (usually ending in an under-active thyroid needing lifelong tablets), and less often the pituitary (hypophysitis) or adrenal glands, which can be life-threatening if missed.
See all on the product pages:DurvalumabGemcitabine + cisplatinPembrolizumab·Printable cards in the navigator
Newly diagnosed? Read the first 60 days with Cystic duct carcinoma, then print the one-page appointment sheet with room for the answers.
Print this page for your appointment (your browser's print command). These prompts are for discussion; your clinical team knows your case.
Everything in development, the medicines held by this cancer's subtypes, the open problems and what is being done about them, the roadmaps, and what changed on this record.
Every connected record, the notes, the JSON, Markdown and RDF twins, and where the record came from and when it was checked.