Hilar cholangiocarcinoma care at Mayo Clinic
Cholangiocarcinoma team members consult
A multidisciplinary team collaborates to provide individualized, comprehensive care for people with bile duct cancer.
Mayo Clinic offers compassionate care by experienced doctors for people with cholangiocarcinoma.
Your Mayo Clinic care team
At Mayo Clinic, experts work together to provide you with exactly the care you need. Your care team is made up of experts in hilar cholangiocarcinoma, including specialists in gastroenterology and hepatology, radiology, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, surgery, transplant, and other areas if needed.
This coordinated team approach fosters clear communication focused on your situation. Close collaboration among your Mayo Clinic care team members enables them to have your test results available quickly and to coordinate your appointments.
Proton therapy for cholangiocarcinoma
Some people with cholangiocarcinoma may benefit from Mayo Clinic's Proton Beam Therapy Program.
Advanced diagnosis and treatment
People who seek care at Mayo Clinic have access to advanced radiological imaging, genetic testing and other advanced diagnostic tools. Your Mayo Clinic doctors have specialized expertise in analysis of biopsy specimens for bile duct cancer and in radiological imaging, both of which are essential to an accurate diagnosis and staging of your cancer.
Your treatment options for your hilar cholangiocarcinoma will depend on the specifics of your cancer, such as the size, location and extent, as well as your health and personal preferences. At Mayo Clinic, your expert team considers all of the available options and works with you to find a treatment that meets your needs.
Mayo Clinic offers all standard treatments for hilar cholangiocarcinoma, including surgery, radiation therapy, radiofrequency ablation, photodynamic therapy, and chemotherapy and other medicines.
Mayo Clinic also offers proton therapy — a newer form of radiation therapy. Children, young adults and those with cancers located close to critical organs and body structures may benefit from this highly targeted precision beam therapy. Mayo Clinic's Proton Beam Therapy Program features intensity-modulated proton therapy with pencil beam scanning that allows radiation oncologists to destroy the cancer while sparing healthy tissue.
Mayo Clinic also offers palliative care, which is specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from pain and other symptoms of a serious illness. At Mayo Clinic, palliative care specialists work with you, your family and your other doctors to provide an extra layer of support that complements your ongoing care.
Liver transplant experience
Mayo Clinic physicians pioneered the treatment protocol that combines chemotherapy and radiation therapy followed by liver transplantation for people with hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Mayo specialists have extensive experience performing liver transplants using this approach, which is offered at all three Mayo Clinic campuses.
The protocol has since been adopted by other centers worldwide, but it remains a technically complex procedure that requires a highly coordinated multidisciplinary team to achieve the best results. Mayo Clinic reports that outcomes after liver transplant using this rigorous pretreatment protocol are excellent, often superior to traditional surgical resection. These outcomes support transplantation as a primary treatment option rather than a last resort.
At Mayo Clinic, liver transplantation is performed by highly experienced surgeons who complete a large number of these operations each year.
Bile duct cancer consultation
The results of your imaging tests will help guide your treatment.
Nationally recognized expertise
Mayo Clinic hilar cholangiocarcinoma specialists are respected for their knowledge, experience and expertise. Specialists have extensive experience caring for people with bile duct cancers and they perform a high volume of operations and procedures on the liver and bile ducts. Mayo Clinic specialists, including endoscopists, interventional radiologists, cancer surgeons and transplant surgeons, are among the most experienced procedural experts in the world.
Mayo Clinic surgeon Rory L. Smoot, M.D., discusses cholangiocarcinoma care at Mayo Clinic.
Expertise and rankings
Mayo Clinic doctors conduct research to advance the diagnosis and treatment of bile duct cancer.
Mayo Clinic doctors have extensive experience diagnosing and treating many people with hilar cholangiocarcinoma, an uncommon type of cancer. Mayo Clinic is one of the major referral centers in the United States for primary sclerosing cholangitis, which is the major risk factor for bile duct cancer.
Mayo Clinic surgeons pioneered the use of liver transplant to treat hilar cholangiocarcinoma. They have performed many liver transplant procedures and other surgical procedures to treat bile duct cancers.
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center meets the strict standards for a National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer center, which recognize scientific excellence and a multispecialty approach focused on cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, are ranked among the Best Hospitals for cancer by U.S. News & World Report.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, ranks No. 1 for digestive disorders in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings. Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, are ranked among the Best Hospitals for digestive disorders by U.S. News & World Report. Mayo Clinic Children's in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota and the five-state region of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2025–2026 "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings.
Learn more about Mayo Clinic's quality rankings.
Dec. 10, 2025