Endoscopic tumor therapy

In palliative biliary tumor treatment, various methods achieve relief of symptoms owing to adequate bile drainage. Endoscopically placed endopros-theses are suitable for the majority of patients with malignant biliary stenoses. However, migration and clogging of stents frequently impair the success of therapy. Tumor debulking by laser therapy or intraluminal irradiation and endoscopically controlled implantation of self-expanding biliary stents with a large diameter and a small surface area may improve the long-term results. Peroral or percutaneous cholangioscopy facilitate the application and the follow-up checks of these recently developed methods. Endoscopy of the biliary tree is warranted to determine the future role of the various strategies in biliary tumor therapy.