Jaundice only happens when the bile can’t get away from the liver through the bile ducts, and the liver then sends it round the body and to the skin. Bile is an irritant, which explains the itching associated with jaundice.
Some people might not become jaundiced if the liver is able to get rid of the bile – for example intrahepatic CC where the tumour is perhaps only blocking one route out of the liver (before the ducts have joined together to form the common bile duct). Some tumours don’t block the bile ducts until really late on in the disease.