Percutaneous ablation leads to favorable intermediate to long-term disease control in patients with recurrent or unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), according to a new study published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.
To assess the outcome of image-guided ablation in recurrent or unresectable iCCA, a team of researchers, led by Paul B. Shyn, MD, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, conducted a retrospective study in 25 patients between May 2004 and January 2022. The patients underwent 37 image-guided ablation procedures to treat 47 iCCA tumors.
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The mean size of the ablated tumors was 2 cm. Following the operation, the patients’ 1-year local progression-free survival rate was 84%, while the 2 and 5-year local progression-free survival rates were 73% and 59.5%, respectively.
The secondary local-progression-free survival rates were 89.5%, 81.9%, and 75.6% for 1, 2, and 5 years, respectively.
For tumors measuring 2 cm or less, the 1, 2, and 5-year local progression-free survival rates were all 95.8%. “Local control for small tumors was excellent,” the researchers wrote.
Finally, they reported the 1, 2, and 5-year overall survival rates post ablation as being 78.5%, 68.4%, and 43.5%, respectively, while the 1, 2, and 5-year overall survival following the diagnosis of cancer were 96%, 78.7%, and 53.3%, respectively.
The authors concluded that percutaneous ablation provides favorable intermediate to long-term disease control and that increased tumor size is associated with a decreased time to local progression.
Cholangiocarcinoma is a heterogeneous group of malignant tumors of the liver. Depending on their anatomical origin, tumors can be classified as intrahepatic, perihilar, and distal.
Reference
Hu EY, Bhagavatula S, Shi A, et al. Image-guided ablation of recurrent or unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. J Vasc Interv Radiol. Published online February 25, 2023. doi:10.1016/j.jvir.2023.02.024
