Additionally, our findings from the TCGA-CCA cohort indicated a significant elevation in DCLK1 mRNA expression in CCA tissue (5.39 ± 1.40) compared to para-cancer tissue (3.52 ± 1.18) (t = 3.63, P < 0.001, Fig. 1 B), aligning with the results observed in our IHC analysis. Here, DCLK1 is linked to cholangiocarcinoma.