Clinical benefit of radiation therapy and metallic stenting for unresectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma

Figure 1 Distribution of patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma from August 1995 to August 2008.

Figure 2 Cumulative survival rate and median survival time of patients who received curative or non-curative resection, radiotherapy or best supportive care. Cumulative survival times were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log rank test. BSC: Best supportive care; MST: Median survival time; NE: Not evaluable.

Figure 3 Cumulative metallic stent patency. Stents were patent significantly longer in the radiotherapy than in the BSC group (P = 0.0165). BSC: Best supportive care.

Figure 4 Cumulative survival times of patients who received external beam radiotherapy alone and those who received external beam radiotherapy plus intra bile ductal radiotherapy (intraluminal brachytherapy). There was no significant difference in survival between groups. EBRT: External beam radiotherapy; ILBT: Intraluminal brachytherapy.