Clinical Study of Preoperative Radiotherapy for the Extrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

During the last 14 years, we treated 93 cases of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. The resection rate was 34/93 (36.6%). In the resection group, 18 cases (52.9%) werre irradiated before operation (preoperative radiotherapy group) and 16 cases (47.1%) did not receive irradiation (control group). Both groups were selected at random. During percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage, each of the former was treated with electron exposure of 30 Gy as a total dose by extracorporeal irradiation. Preoperative radiotherapy was effective in 66.7% of cases (12/18) histologically. Its effect increased in the intraluminal side of the tumor more than in the extraluminal side; however, it was not clear which histological type of carcinoma was most reactive to irradiation. At 4 years after the operation, the cumulative survival rate of the preoperative radiotherapy group was 40%. On the other hand, that of the control group was 22.5%. Preoperative radiotherapy for extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma seemed to improve resectability and prevent dissemination of the tumor cells, indicating an improvement of the prognosis.