Biliary duct dilatation is a precancerous lesion whose risk of cancer increases with age, but cancer rarely occurs before the age of 20. The average age of bile duct cancer in patients with bile duct dilatation is 42 years, about 10 years earlier than in the general population, and the overall risk of cancer is 100 times higher than in the general population.
Its complications include recurrent biliary duct infections, bile duct stones, pancreatitis, liver fibrosis, secondary cirrhosis and portal hypertension.