Efficacy of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with 5-fluorouracil or gemcitabine in locally advanced biliary tract cancer.

Purpose: There is no established standard treatment for patients with locally advanced biliary tract cancer (BTC).

Methods: We analyzed the treatment results of locally advanced BTC from Jan 1995 to Dec 2010 at single institution of South Korea with retrospective study. One hundred and seventy-six patients were eligible to investigate the treatment response and toxicity. We treated these patients with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)- or gemcitabine (GEM)-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) or best supportive care (BSC). The primary end point was overall survival.

Results: Of these locally advanced BTC patients, 106 patients received CCRT and 70 patients were treated with BSC. The median overall survival was 42.57 weeks (95 % confidence interval [CI], 35.85-49.30) in CCRT group and 13.29 weeks (95 % CI 10.42-16.15) in BSC group (P < 0.001). Nausea and anemia were the most common toxicities observed.

Conclusions: Patients with locally advanced BTC who were treated with 5-FU-based or GEM-based CCRT seem to have a better survival than those who received BSC. The treatment-related toxicity was mild. GEM-based or 5-FU-based CCRT showed similar survival advantages.