Assessment of treatment outcomes in patients with advanced hilar cholangiocarcinoma (stages III–IV): Clinical significance of interventional therapy

The clinical significance of palliative interventional therapy in the management of patients with advanced hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HCCA; stages III–IV) has yet to be studied. The present work was aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of the patients treated with surgery or interventional therapy. A total of 90 patients with advanced HCCA, who admitted Fuyang First People's Hospital from May 2015 to February 2016, were enrolled. Forty-five of them were assigned to the experimental group receiving biliary drainage as the interventional therapy, and the remaining 45 patients were designated as the conventional group receiving radical/palliative surgery. Before and after the treatment total bilirubin from blood was measured. The length of treatment and medical cost were also examined. All patients were followed up for at least 1 year after the treatment. For both the experimental and conventional groups, the serum bilirubin levels after treatment were significantly lower than those before treatment (P 
Source: Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Research Article: Observational Study Source Type: research