[Radiotherapy for extrahepatic bile duct cancer--an analysis of 12 cases]

During the past 8 years, 12 patients with extrahepatic bile duct adenocarcinoma which was contra-indicated to operation or who underwent conservative resection wer treated by radiotherapy in our hospital. Five patients were given post-operative radiation of 60-70 Gy/7-9 weeks, 3 patients received 12 Mev beta beam of one single 30 Gy intra-operative radiotherapy and 4 were treated by intra-operative radiotherapy of 20 Gy plus external irradiation of 40 Gy/5 weeks after the operation. The results indicated that most of the patients died around 1 year and 2 are still alive for over 2 years. The present results are more favorable as compared with those treated before 1980 because biliary drainage had been done before timely high dose radiotherapy after the operation. The author considers that intra-operative radiotherapy or its combination with external irradiation might be helpful to improve the prognosis in extrahepatic bile duct cancer.