Internal biliary drainage and local radiotherapy with iridium-192 wire in treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma.

Curative surgery is not possible in the vast majority of patients who present with hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Palliative therapy to relieve jaundice, either at laparotomy or percutaneously, is therefore necessary. The mean survival of these patients is of the order of 8.5 months (Wheeler et al., 1981). We report a significant increase in mean survival to 16.8 months in patients treated with internal biliary drainage when combined with local irradiation to the tumour with iridium-192.