Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with doxifluridine and paclitaxel for extrahepatic bile duct cancer
Jeong Youp Park1, Seung Woo Park, Jae Bock Chung
1Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Objectives:
Bile duct cancer is a rare malignancy with poor prognosis. We sought to determine the efficacy of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with doxifluridine and paclitaxel for extrahepatic bile duct cancer.
Methods:
Nineteen patients with unresectable extrahepatic bile duct cancer received doxifluridine (600 mg/m2) daily, intravenous paclitaxel (50 mg/m) weekly (before radiotherapy), and radiotherapy of 4500 cGy for approximately 5 weeks.
Results:
Local response rate which reflected the reopening of occluded bile duct was 89.5% (17 out of 19). In 6 cases (31.6%), overall response, which measured the change of tumor size, was achieved with this treatment. The longest survival time was 52 months, and median survival time was 14 months. One- and 2-year survival rates were 84.2% and 31.6%, respectively. One case of gastrointestinal bleeding and 1 case of grade III leukopenia occurred during the treatment. One patient could not finish the treatment because of poor general condition.
Conclusions:
Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with doxifluridine and paclitaxel seemed to produce a good clinical response without severe toxicity and improve survival rates in patients with extrahepatic bile duct cancer.
