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Positioning high-dose radiation in multidisciplinary management of unresectable cholangiocarcinomas: Review of current evidence

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Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma is a rare malignancy of the bile ducts. The current standard of care for unresectable nonmetastatic disease is doublet systemic chemotherapy, which provides a median survival of 11.7 months. Although chemoradiation is a therapeutic option that provides almost equivalent or superior survival, the lack of level I evidence presents a major hurdle in routinely recommending it within multidisciplinary clinics. This mini review presents the current evidence on the use of chemoradiation for unresectable nonmetastatic cholangiocarcinoma and rationale for positioning it within multidisciplinary management of unresectable cholangiocarcinomas.

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Conflict of interest

SC, ASM, RE and SKS declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, Advanced Centre for Treatment Research and Education in Cancer, Tata Memorial Centre, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, 410 210, India

    Supriya Chopra

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Memorial Centre, Parel, Mumbai, 400 012, India

    Ashwathy S. Mathew, Reena Engineer & Shyam K. Shrivastava

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  1. Supriya Chopra
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  2. Ashwathy S. Mathew
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  3. Reena Engineer
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  4. Shyam K. Shrivastava
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Correspondence to Supriya Chopra.

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Chopra, S., Mathew, A.S., Engineer, R. et al. Positioning high-dose radiation in multidisciplinary management of unresectable cholangiocarcinomas: Review of current evidence. Indian J Gastroenterol 33, 401–407 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12664-014-0495-6

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