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Review
. 2017 Jul;19(7):50.
doi: 10.1007/s11912-017-0603-8.

Update on Treatment Options for Advanced Bile Duct Tumours: Radioembolisation for Advanced Cholangiocarcinoma

Pavan Najran  1 , Angela Lamarca  2 , Damian Mullan  1 , Mairéad G McNamara  2   3 , Thomas Westwood  1 , Richard A Hubner  2 , Jeremy Lawrence  1 , Prakash Manoharan  1 , Jon Bell  1 , Juan W Valle  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Update on Treatment Options for Advanced Bile Duct Tumours: Radioembolisation for Advanced Cholangiocarcinoma

Pavan Najran et al. Curr Oncol Rep. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma is a rare form of gastrointestinal cancer with a poor prognosis. Patients often present with biliary obstruction or non-specific abdominal pain, and a high proportion of patients have advanced disease at initial diagnosis. The goal of this review is to discuss treatment options for patients with advanced bile duct tumours focusing on radioembolisation (RE) and its impact on overall survival. RE provides a therapeutic option for patients with unresectable cholangiocarcinoma. However, although systemic chemotherapy has demonstrated a survival benefit in randomised controlled trials, there is limited supporting evidence for the use of RE in this setting. Studies are mostly limited to single-centre, small cohorts with variable outcome measures. Additionally, patients included in these studies received a variety of previous therapies including chemotherapy, surgery or alternative intra-arterial therapy; therefore, a true assessment of overall survival benefit is difficult.

Keywords: Advanced; Chemotherapy; Cholangiocarcinoma; Intrahepatic; Liver radioembolisation (RE); Treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

Pavan Najran declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Angela Lamarca declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Damian Mullan declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Mairéad G. McNamara declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Thomas Westwood has received compensation from BTG for service as a consultant.

Richard A. Hubner declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Jeremy Lawrence has received compensation from Sirtex Medical for service as a consultant.

Prakash Manoharan has received compensation from Sirtex Medical and TheraSpheres for service as a consultant.

Jon Bell declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Juan W. Valle has received compensation from Sirtex Medical for service as a consultant.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Funding

Angela Lamarca was funded by the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) Fellowship Grant.

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