[Experience of gemcitabine therapy after non-curative resection for biliary tract cancer]

We report a patient in which gemcitabine therapy was effective for controlling relapse of cancer after noncurative resection for bile duct cancer. A 75-year-old man suffering from bile duct cancer underwent resection of extrahepatic bile duct on December 3, 2002, but surgical margins were positive at the hepatic site and the pancreatic site. Two months after surgery, he began to undergo gemcitabine therapy (1,000 mg/body, biweekly) as adjuvant chemotherapy in the outpatient clinic. The chemotherapy has been continued up to the present. No severe side effect has been observed throughout the treatment. The patient remains well with no evidence of relapse of the cancer 26 months after surgery. Gemcitabine therapy is considered effective as adjuvant chemotherapy for bile duct cancer.