Expression of cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 is related to lymphatic metastasis and indicates prognosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients after surgery resection

• CKAP4 was overexpressed in the majority of ICC cases.
• CKAP4 was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis features.
• CKAP4 was an independent predictor for overall survival for ICC.

The objective of the study was to investigate the clinical significance of CKAP4 in intrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma (ICC). CKAP4 expression was determined in a cohort containing 173 cases of ICC patients. We found that CKAP4 was overexpressed in the majority of ICC cases and was significantly associated with tumor size, distant metastasis, lymph node metastasis, UICC and TNM stage features. Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression data indicated that CKAP4 was correlated with favorable clinical outcome and was an independent predictor for overall survival (HR, 0.646; 95% CI, 0.463–0.900 [p = 0.010]). Thus, CKAP4 may serve as a prognostic marker of ICC patients.