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Palliative and postoperative radiotherapy in biliary tract cancer
O Kenneth Macdonald1, Christopher H Crane
1University of Texas at Houston Medical School, 6431 Fannin, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Abstract:
Local failure is the primary limitation for cure in patients with BTC. whether or not they have been resected. The use of radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy in the postoperative setting is controversial, but some studies have reported improvement in 5-year survival. In patients with unresectable BTC, EBRT offers effective palliation of symptomatic disease and has resulted in improved median and long-term survival in a small number of patients in most studies. Novel approaches, including neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy combined with OLT, and escalated conformal irradiation, seem to be promising and warrant further investigation.