chol·an·gio·car·ci·no·ma
What is Bile Duct Cancer
Bile duct cancer, or cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), forms in the inner protective lining of the bile ducts, known as the epithelial lining, which shields the ducts from toxic bile.
The liver produces bile, which helps digest fats. Bile ducts act like a network of pipes, collecting bile from the liver and transporting it to the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.
Inside the liver, tiny ducts merge into two larger ducts that join just below the liver to form the common bile duct. A side branch, the cystic duct, leads to the gallbladder, a reservoir storing bile for release during fatty meals.
The common bile duct passes through the pancreas into the ampulla of Vater, where bile mixes with pancreatic enzymes before aiding digestion in the duodenum.
Listen
Who We Are
Empowering Patients, Advancing Research, Enhancing Survival
The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Australia is a uniquely patient-led functional cancer research and advocacy organisation with deep knowledge and understanding of the cholangiocarcinoma challenge and other bile-related cancers, including liver, gallbladder, and pancreatic cancers.
Our functional approach simplifies the complexities of the cancer challenge into a format that better equips and empowers patients to understand, engage with, and more effectively respond from the moment of diagnosis. Central to this is our Patient Navigator Journal, an initiative which guides patients through a proven, systematic response process, transforming them from passive passengers into active co-pilots in their cancer response.
By simplifying the latest medical science and knowledge, patients can fully utilise and benefit from today’s options and opportunities. Backed by our peer-trained navigators and a supportive peer-to-peer community, we enhance survival outcomes and improve the quality of life for patients and their families.
Our projects address critical gaps in patient response strategies, best practices, and prevention, driving innovative solutions for today’s patients and future generations:
- Patient-Led Cancer Response Strategies
Developing and implementing response strategies and processes to better equip and empower patients to effectively understand, engage with, and respond to their diagnosis from the moment it is made. Initiatives like our Patient Navigator Journal simplify complexities through a proven, systematic response process, transforming patients from passive passengers into active co-pilots in navigating their cancer challenge. - Streamlining Diagnosis to Expertise
Patient-Endorsed Medical Professional Registries that accelerate the connection between a patient’s specific diagnosis and medical professionals with matching expertise and experience. These registries streamline the process, increasing the speed and confidence of connections for newly diagnosed patients, while providing clear pathways for second opinions, as well as remote and regional access to specialised professionals. - Unlocking Early Detection and Prevention
Supporting research into functional bile composition to identify harmful toxic bile before cancer develops. Our focus is on advancing early detection, prevention, and innovative response methods, helping to address chronic toxic bile composition as a precursor to cancer formation.
Our Innovative Supporting Projects
Light Australia Green (LAGi): An annual campaign raising awareness and engagement at all levels through impactful events, including patient-medical symposiums, landmark illuminations that connect the public and patients, and conferences. These initiatives unite communities to advocate for and support our research and projects.
Cholangio Challengers: A fundraising initiative encouraging patients, supporters, and friends to create unique challenges—whether marathons, walks, or baking contests—turning active lifestyles into vital support for research.
The Remembrance Project: Honouring patients and families by funding CCF research scholarships for young, aspiring scientists focused on bile duct and bile-related cancers. This initiative ensures a lasting legacy while advancing critical research in the field.
A Message Before You Begin
Equip Yourself For Survival
Your greatest resource is yourself—and the lived experiences of those who came before you: a resource often overlooked in the chaos.
When diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, chaos quickly invades, and our steady thoughts are lost in its avalanche. It is then that we must quiet our minds and let the chaos slide by. We all have power over our minds—but not over outside events. While we cannot control the fact that we have cancer, we can control how we respond to it.
This is how we shift our perceptions and begin to see the possibilities—our opportunities within this obstacle of cancer. Step by step, we find our rhythm and sense of control. By focusing on each small step and doing it well, we methodically achieve what others thought impossible. In doing so, we gain fresh momentum—we gain control.
As Ryan Holiday wisely said, “The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”
I struggled with this at first but eventually saw it as true. Every obstacle, and every step, holds possibilities within it—even cancer. All I needed to do was learn to slow my mind and see things as they were so I could begin to see the possibilities hidden within. That became my new way—where I focused all my energy, turning possibilities into opportunities. That was within my control. And that is how I began to forge a pathway between the improbable and the impossible.
This is how we, as humans, achieve remarkable and resourceful things that just yesterday were deemed impossible—like landing on the moon or inventing the light bulb.
From my own lived experiences, I believe that hope provides a new way forward when all known ways are exhausted. Hope is both a vision and an insight, revealed only when we are at one with the pure necessity for survival—a perspective, a path, invisible to those not burdened by such need. Hope becomes the bridge—a pathway—to a new reality.
Persistence is common, but perseverance is rare. While persistence is driven by finite physical energy and a need for validation, perseverance is sustained by an endless and unbreakable inner will.
We patients must be bold. We must step aside and allow this will—our perseverance—to rise up and lead. This is how we endure and achieve beyond what we once thought possible. This is how we give our very best to each step—because our best is all we can give, and that is enough.
Helping you help yourself is the greatest gift I can give—it is the greatest gift any of us can give. You too can amplify this incredible human resource by supporting those who are helping you succeed. Be the best patient you can be, so that together, you can rise above the prognosis and surpass what you once thought was possible.
It begins in the mind—it always has. Join me.
Steve Holmes –
Fellow Patient
There is always a way if we can remain open to such thinking ~ this quote captures how I felt.
“Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible.” — Marcus Aurelius
Funding Support
To directly contribute to our research and development of patient survival strategies and groundbreaking prevention research, please contact Claire at claire@cholangio.org
If you would like to donate to help today’s patient today, please use the button below or visit our fundraising page to view support options
Bridging the Gaps: Collaborating to Enhance Patient Survival
We collaborate with medical professionals, researchers, and industry partners to accelerate progress and improve survival outcomes. While medical professionals excel at diagnosing, treating, and caring for patients, they may not always address the broader challenges a cancer diagnosis presents.
With our deep, lived experience and understanding of cholangiocarcinoma, we work to bridge these gaps by preparing and supporting patients as they navigate their diagnosis and prognosis. By aligning expertise across science, healthcare, and patient advocacy, we ensure comprehensive care that empowers patients and enhances their quality of life.
If you would like to collaborate or provide assistance, please familiarise yourself with our CCF Australia Introduction and Guide.
CCA Today
“CCA Today: Stay Informed and Empowered
CCA Today is a blend of a newsletter, email digest, and magazine—crafted specifically for cholangiocarcinoma and other bile-related cancers, such as liver and pancreatic cancers. Empowering patients empowers their support and increases survivorship. CCA Today seizes on the power of understanding to drive effective engagement.
Equip Yourself for Survival
See the possibilities then set about making them your realities
There is nothing in life—or in the science of life—that isn’t vulnerable to being knocked off its precarious pedestal of certainty, including a cancer prognosis and the statistics that support it.
The only certainty in life or science is this: there is no certainty—just obstacles and possibilities, for that is the very fabric in which life is made.
Therefore, our opportunity begins when we pause to see the obstacle as it is, not as we fear, for that is how we see the possibilities hidden within—our opportunity—our new way.
