Abstract:Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is characterized by highly malignant behavior, being difficult to make an early detection, and frequent lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion and intrahepatic dissemination, which lead to the poor prognosis of the patients. At present, radical operation is still the only therapy for providing a chance of long-term survival, but it faces many problems such as low radical-resection rate and high postoperative recurrence rate, as well as many controversies such as determinations for the scope of liver resection and the width of the surgical margin and whether the lymph node dissection should be done. Adjuvant therapy is a critical component of the multimodality treatment, but there are no standard directions and effective protocols for its chemoradiotherapy, and the targeted therapy and immunotherapy are at the stage of exploration. With the development of molecular biological techniques, high degree of heterogeneity has been found in ICC in terms of gene mutation, signal transduction and clinicopathologic features. Here, the authors from the heterogeneity of the biological characteristics and clinical features of ICC in combination with the treatment strategies and the new concept of integrated therapy for ICC, provide new insights and research directions for its individualized treatment.