Stent placement with iodine-125 seeds strand effectively extends the duration of stent patency and survival in patients with unresectable malignant obstructive jaundice

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to compare the treatment outcomes and safety between stent placement with or without Iodine-¹²⁵ (¹²⁵I) seeds strand for patients with unresectable malignant obstructive jaundice (MOJ).Methods: A total of 84 patients with unresectable MOJ treated in our hospital were retrospectively included and divided into the stent group (n = 54) undergoing biliary stent placement and the stent + seeds group (n = 30) receiving stent placement with ¹²⁵I seeds strand. The therapeutic outcome, postoperative complications, duration of patient survival and stent patency were compared between groups. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to compare the duration of patient survival and stent patency between groups. Cox-regression analysis was performed to investigate predictive factors for disease-free survival and overall survival.Results: The stent + seeds group had significantly longer duration of patency (231.57 ± 256.54 vs. 110.37 ± 120.52) and overall survival (310.57 ± 330.54 vs. 173.15 ± 219.40) than the stent group (both p < .05). In addition, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis confirmed that the stent + seeds group had longer duration of patency (log-rank test, p = .001) and higher overall survival rate (log-rank test, p = .020) than the stent group. Furthermore, Cox-regression analysis demonstrated that treatment methods was an independent factor associated with disease-free survival (HR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.19-0.70; p = .003) and overall survival (HR: 1.01, 95% CI: 1.00-1.01; p < .001).Conclusion: The stent placement with ¹²⁵I seeds strand can significantly improve the primary patency rate and overall survival time in MOJ patients.

Keywords: Malignant obstructive jaundice; iodine-125 radioactive stent; primary patency; stent placement.