ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To analyze the survival period, prognostic factors and complications of patients having undergone high-dose-rate intraluminal brachytherapy (HDR-ILB) as a salvage radiation therapy, while having a catheter, for percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD), inserted due to biliary obstruction caused by a secondary malignant biliary tumor. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A retrospective study was performed on 24 patients having undergone HDR- ILB, with PTBD catheter insertion, between December 1992 and August 2001. Their median age was 58.5, ranging from 35 to 82 years. The primary cancer site were the stomach, gallbladder, liver, pancreas and the colon, with 12, 6, 3, 2 and 1 cases, respectively. Eighteen patients were treated with external beam radiation therapy and HDR-ILB, while six were treated with HDR-ILB only. The total external beam, and brachytherapy radiations dose were 30~61.2 and 9~30 Gy, with median doses of 50 and 15 Gy, respectively. RESULTS: Of the 24 patients analyzed, 22 died during the follow-up period, with a median survival of 7.3 months. The 6 and 12 months survival rates were 54.2 (13 patients) and 20.8% (5 patients), respectively. The median survivals for stomach and gallbladder cancers were 7.8 and 10.2 months, respectively. According to the univariate analysis, a significant factor affecting survival of over one year was the total radiation dose (over 50 Gy) (p=0.0200), with all the patients surviving more than one year had been irradiated with more than 50 Gy. The acute side effects during the radiation therapy were managed with conservative treatment. During the follow-up period, 5 patients showed symptoms of cholangitis due to the radiation therapy. CONCLUSION: An extension to the survival of those patients treated with HDR-ILB is suggested compared to the median historical survival of those patients treated with external biliary drainage. A boost radiation dose could be effectively given, by performing HDR-ILB, which is a prognostic factor. In addition, the acute complications of radiation therapy were effectively controlled by conservative management, and it could be regarded as a safe treatment.