What Are the Symptoms of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma?

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) arises from bile ducts within the liver parenchyma. Early lesions are usually asymptomatic; as the tumor enlarges or metastasizes, the following complaints typically appear:

  1. Right-upper-quadrant pain
    A dull, continuous ache or vague fullness beneath the ribs is the most frequent early symptom; it may radiate to the back or shoulder.
  2. Palpable mass or hepatomegaly
    Patients or clinicians can feel a firm, nodular liver edge or localized lump that moves with respiration.
  3. Unintended weight loss & anorexia
    Rapid loss of >5 % body weight within weeks, early satiety and loss of interest in food are common systemic effects.
  4. Fatigue and night sweats
    Persistent tiredness, low-grade fever and drenching night sweats reflect cytokine release and tumor cachexia.
  5. Jaundice (less common than in hilar tumors)
    Yellow sclera/skin, dark urine and pale stools occur only when large tumors compress intra-hepatic bile radicals or invade the hepatic hilum.
  6. Pruritus
    Deposition of bile salts can produce intense, often intractable itching even before visible jaundice.
  7. Paraneoplastic signs
    Hypercalcaemia, hypoglycaemia or dermatomyositis occasionally precede other manifestations.

Because findings overlap with benign liver disease, any new combination of RUQ pain, weight loss and fatigue—especially in patients with cirrhosis, hepatitis or primary sclerosing cholangitis—should prompt urgent imaging and tumour-marker assessment.

Symptom / SignTypical Features
RUQ pain/heavinessDull ache, may radiate to shoulder
Palpable massFirm, nodular, moves with breathing
Weight loss>5 % in weeks, anorexia
Fatigue/night sweatsPersistent, low-grade fever
JaundiceLate, if bile radicals compressed
PruritusIntense, may precede icterus
ParaneoplasticHypercalcaemia, skin rash