Brachytherapy and percutaneous stenting in the treatment of cholangiocarcinoma: A prospective randomised study
Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the effect of radiation therapy including intraluminal brachyterapy with iridium-192 on survival of patients with malignant biliary strictures (cholangiocarcinoma, histologically improved) treated with metallic stent in a prospective randomised study. In the prospective randomised study, 21 patients with cholangiocarcinoma were treated with implantation of percutaneous stents followed with intraluminal Ir-192 brachytherapy (mean dose 30 Gy) and external radiotherapy (mean dose 50 Gy) and 21 patients were treated only with stents insertion.
We did not find any statistically significant differences in age and tumor localization between these two groups of patients. Conclusion: Our results show that combined radiation therapy could extend the survival in the patients with cholangiocarcinoma obstruction.