Ghosn M, Kourie HR, El Rassy E, Haddad FG, Hanna C, El Karak F, Nasr D. Where does chemotherapy stands in the treatment of ampullary carcinoma? A review of literature. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2016; 8(10): 745-750 [PMID: 27795814 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i10.745]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Marwan Ghosn, MD, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Monot St, Beirut, PO Box 166830, Beirut 1104-2020, Lebanon. mghosn.hdf@usj.edu.lb
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2016; 8(10): 745-750 Published online Oct 15, 2016. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i10.745
Where does chemotherapy stands in the treatment of ampullary carcinoma? A review of literature
Marwan Ghosn, Hampig Raphael Kourie, Elie El Rassy, Fady Ghassan Haddad, Colette Hanna, Fadi El Karak, Dolly Nasr
Marwan Ghosn, Hampig Raphael Kourie, Elie El Rassy, Fady Ghassan Haddad, Colette Hanna, Fadi El Karak, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Beirut 1104-2020, Lebanon
Hampig Raphael Kourie, Department of Oncology, Jules Bordet Institute, Free University of Brussels (ULB), B-1070 Brussels, Belgium
Dolly Nasr, Department of Radiation Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Beirut 1104-2020, Lebanon
Author contributions: Ghosn M initiated the review; Ghosn M, Kourie HR, El Rassy E performed the review, analyzed the data and wrote first draft; Ghosn M, Kourie HR, El Rassy E, Haddad FG, Hanna C, El Karak F and Nasr D reviewed and commented on the paper and provided final approval.
Conflict-of-interest statement: To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest exists.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Marwan Ghosn, MD, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Monot St, Beirut, PO Box 166830, Beirut 1104-2020, Lebanon. mghosn.hdf@usj.edu.lb
Telephone: +961-1-3226842 Fax: +961-1-1613397
Received: June 18, 2016 Peer-review started: June 19, 2016 First decision: July 4, 2016 Revised: July 29, 2016 Accepted: August 17, 2016 Article in press: August 19, 2016 Published online: October 15, 2016
Abstract
Ampullary carcinoma (AC) is a rare gastrointestinal tumor without clear treatment recommendations. The management of this tumor is usually extrapolated from the treatment of pancreatic, biliary duct and intestinal cancers. Few papers have studied the AC as an independent entity and yet succombs to several limitations. These studies were retrospective single institutional experiences with limited sample sizes recruited over a long period of time. Unlike metastatic ACs where chemotherapy is the only recommended option, localized AC once excised may be approached by either chemotherapy alone or concomitant chemoradiation therapy. In this review, we report the overall survival and recurrence factors of more than 1000 patients from all the studies treating exclusively ACs. We also review the medical treatment of this tumor and conclude to the necessity of multi-institutional randomized controlled studies for AC exclusively.
Core tip: This paper is a minireview outlining the actual knowledge concerning the treatment of ampullary carcinoma. After a brief review of the prognostic factors and current treatment options for localized and advanced ampullary carcinoma, we discuss the new molecular targets and report on the potential novel therapies.
