What causes bile duct cancer?
• Infection or inflammation of your bile ducts over many months or years (sclerosing cholangitis). • One in three people who have the cancer also have gallstones. However, very few people with gallstones get bile duct cancer, and there is no proven link. • Non-cancerous cysts in your bile duct. These are called choledochal cysts and about one in 25 may develop into a cancer. • Being born with widened bile ducts leading from your liver (dilated hepatic ducts). It is a rare condition, and seems to increase the risk of bile duct cancer for between one in 10 and one in 20 people. • Rarely, when you have inflammation of the bowel for a long time. • Environmental pollution. Certain chemicals have been associated with a big increase in bile duct cancers over the last 30 years. These chemicals include dioxins released by organochlorines (from plastics and pesticides), which are fat-soluble and can build up in the body. Some food preservatives, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, from fluids used
