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World J Gastrointest Oncol. Nov 15, 2021; 13(11): 1696-1708
Published online Nov 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i11.1696
Non-surgical treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma
Riccardo Inchingolo, Fabrizio Acquafredda, Valentina Ferraro, Letizia Laera, Gianmarco Surico, Alessia Surgo, Alba Fiorentino, Stefania Marini, Nicola de'Angelis, Riccardo Memeo, Stavros Spiliopoulos
Riccardo Inchingolo, Fabrizio Acquafredda, Interventional Radiology Unit, "F. Miulli" General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva Delle Fonti 70124, Italy
Valentina Ferraro, Riccardo Memeo, Unit of Hepato-Pancreatic-Biliary Surgery, "F. Miulli" General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva Delle Fonti 70021, Italy
Letizia Laera, Gianmarco Surico, Department of Oncology, "F. Miulli" General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva Delle Fonti 70021, Italy
Alessia Surgo, Alba Fiorentino, Department of Radiation Oncology, "F. Miulli" General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva Delle Fonti 70021, Italy
Stefania Marini, Department of Radiology, "F. Miulli" General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva Delle Fonti 70021, Italy
Nicola de'Angelis, Unit of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Digestive Surgery, "F. Miulli" General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva Delle Fonti 70021, Italy
Stavros Spiliopoulos, 2nd Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 12461, Greece
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors are aware of the content of the manuscript and have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Riccardo Inchingolo, MD, Chief Doctor, Director, Doctor, Interventional Radiology Unit, "F. Miulli" General Regional Hospital, Strada per Santeramo, Acquaviva Delle Fonti 70124, Italy. riccardoin@hotmail.it
Received: March 16, 2021
Peer-review started: March 16, 2021
First decision: May 3, 2021
Revised: May 30, 2021
Accepted: September 14, 2021
Article in press: September 14, 2021
Published online: November 15, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Most patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HC) are not candidates for surgery or liver transplant at the time of diagnosis. Recently, several options for the management of unresectable HC have emerged and due to the complexity of this disease, a multi-disciplinary approach with multimodal treatment is recommended, including surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, diagnostic radiology, interventional radiology, gastroenterology, and pathology. Recent data suggest an improvement in overall survival, better response rates, and tumor control in patients with unresectable HC can be achieved by combining chemotherapy and minimal invasive ablatives strategies.