Survival of cholangiocarcinoma patients in northeastern Thailand after supportive treatment

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a very common cancer in Northeastern Thailand. Most CCA patients see a physician at a late stage when curative surgery is not possible. After diagnosis, they generally are treated by partial surgery/percutaneous drainage, chemotherapy and supportive treatment.

This study aimed to assess the survival rates of CCA patients after supportive treatment.

A retrospective cohort design was applied in this study. Data for 746 CCA patients were extracted from the hospital-based cancer registry of Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University. The patients were diagnosed (at least by ultrasonography) between 1 January, 2009 and 31 December, 2009 and then followed up for current status until 30 June, 2011. The cumulative survival rate was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and independent prognostic factors were investigated using Cox regression.

The total follow-up time was 5,878 person-months, and the total number of deaths was 637. The mortality rate was therefore 10.8 per 100 person-year (95%CI : 10.1-11.7). The cumulative 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 month survival rates were 59%, 39%, 31%, 24% and 14%, respectively. The median survival time after supportive treatment was 4 months. After adjusting for gender, age, stage, distant metastasis, histological grading and treatment, stage was a significant predictor of survival of CCA patients. Those in stage III and stage IV had a 6.78 fold higher mortality than the stage I and stage II cases (95% CI : 1.6-28.7).

It is very important to encourage patients to see health personnel at an early stage.