Prediction of regional lymph node metastasis in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: it's not all about size.

"Declarations Conflict of interestAll authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial conflict of interest. Ethical approvalThe study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board (internal registration number: EA2/016/14). Conflict of interest All authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial conflict of interest."

"Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL."

"The study was approved by the Ethics Committee prior to implementation (Internal registration number: EA2/016/14). We retrospectively enrolled 102 patients with pathologically proven mass-forming iCC who underwent multiphase CT imaging prior to liver resection including hilar lymphadenectomy from 2005 to 2021. The study population consisted of 46 women and 56 men. Average patient age at the time of surgery was 64 ± 11 years, ranging from 32 to 94 years. Excluded from the study were patients with primary lesions classified as greater than T3 according to the 2017 AJCC staging system, constellations of bilobar tumor manifestations precluding hemi hepatectomy or trisectionectomy, lymph node metastases beyond the hilar region and other extrahepatic, distant metastases (M1) on preoperative imaging. Other exclusion criteria were inadequate imaging studies, mixed histology (iCC/HCC), and primary lesions measuring < 1 cm in diameter. For each patient, we recorded the following additional outcome data: time of tumor recurrence, last follow-up, and death, if available. From the pathological reports we extracted the tumor grade, classified from G1 to G3 (well differentiated, moderately differentiated, and poorly differentiated) as well as the presence and number of LNMs. Declarations: Conflict of interestAll authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial conflict of interest.: Ethical approvalThe study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board (internal registration number: EA2/016/14). Ethical approval: The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board (internal registration number: EA2/016/14)."