Intraluminal brachytherapy without stenting in intrahepatic papillary cholangiocarcinoma: A case report

A 46-year-old female patient, with mild cholestasis by a large papillary cholangiocarcinoma involving the left hepatic duct, received intralummal brachytherapy (50 Gy at 1 cm from the source axis) with the aim to relieve biliary obstruction without stent positioning. The patient presented with haemobilia and vegetant lesions in the left main biliary duct, and thus she had a high risk of early stent obstruction. Eighteen months after the treatment the patient presented tumour progression in the controlateral hepatic lobe, but had a patent left hepatic duct, without signs of cholestasis and/or cholangitis. Based on this and other published reports, intralummal brachytherapy may be tested in a setting different from standard setting with the aim to safely palliate jaundice in patients with intraductal tumour growth in the biliary tract. (C) 2005 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.