On the Revision of the Japanese General Rules for Surgical and Pathological Studies on Cancer of the Biliary Tract

Takukazu Nagakawa

The Department of Health and Science, School of Medicine, Kanazawa University

It has been fifteen years since the first edition of the Japanese General Rules of Cancer of the Biliary Tract was published. It was revised broad as the third trial last year according to the revision of both general rules of gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer. The portion of the biliary tract is described on this manuscript. The main present revised points were the establishment of cancer of the portal (hilar) bile duct (Bp), the revision of the rules of serosal invasion (Sx), the classification of lymph node groups, and the classification of the macroscopic types of tumor, the establishment of the rules of spread of tumor around the biliary tract (T or t category) and the operative and comprehensive cancer stage, the change of the expression of invasion to the surgical margin (BM, bm, Hm hm, Dm, dm, Em, and em), the establishment of the rules of estimation of operative curability, the change of invasive depth in the wall of the biliary tract (exception of af), the change of the histological types of tumor and so on. Those formations became similar to those of TNM classification by UICC. The differences between the Japanese and UICC rules were discussed additionally.

Key words
General Rules for Surgical and Pathological Studies on Cancer of the Biliary Tract, portal (hilar) bile duct cancer, T or t-category

Reprint requests
Takukazu Nagakawa The Department of Health and Science, School of Medicine, Kanazawa University 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa, 920-8641 JAPAN

Accepted
November 13, 1998

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