Effectiveness of radiation therapy after surgery for hilar cholangiocarcinoma
Noriaki Sagawa1, Satoshi Kondo, Toshiaki Morikawa
1Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Purpose:
Some studies suggest that giving radiation therapy after surgery for hilar cholangiocarcinoma improves the survival rate; however, many of these studies did not specify numbers of subjects or provide an impartial analysis. Thus, we evaluated the effectiveness of radiation therapy as adjuvant treatment after surgery and attempted to establish appropriate adaptation standards.
Methods:
We reviewed the records of 69 patients who underwent surgery for hilar cholangiocarcinoma between June 1980 and April 1998. Thirty-nine patients were treated with surgery followed by radiation therapy and 30 were treated with surgery alone.
Results:
The clinicopathologic features that might have influenced prognosis were similar in the patients who received radiation therapy and those who did not. Radiation as adjuvant therapy did not have a beneficial effect on overall survival (P = 0.554, log-rank test); however, it tended to improve survival in the group of patients who underwent curative resection for with p-stage III or IVa disease (P = 0.042, log-rank test).
Conclusions:
Radiation therapy after surgery did not show any clinical benefits for patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma. However, it may be effective as adjuvant therapy after curative resection in a small subgroup of patients with p-stage III or IVa disease.