A pilot study of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin in patients with locally advanced biliary tract cancer

Purpose: Combination chemotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin is a standard treatment for patients with advanced biliary tract cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of gemcitabine- and cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with unresectable biliary tract cancer. Methods: Patients with pathologically proven, unresectable, non-metastatic biliary tract cancer were enrolled. Gemcitabine was administered intravenously at a dose of 1000 mg/m² on days 1, 8, and 15. Cisplatin was administered intravenously at a dose of 70 mg/m² on day 1. All the patients underwent concurrent radiotherapy with 45 Gy in 1.8-Gy daily fractions. After treatment completion, tumor response was evaluated by using computed tomography. Results: Eighteen patients were enrolled between June 2007 and October 2011. Their median age was 61 years (range, 38–72 years). Eight patients (44.5 %) were diagnosed with gallbladder cancer, six (33.3 %) with Klatskin’s tumor, and four (22.2 %) with distal common bile duct cancer. After treatment completion, partial response was achieved in five patients (27.8 %) and stable disease in 13 patients (72.2 %). The overall response rate was 27.8 %, and the disease stabilization rate was 100 %. No grade 4 adverse events or treatment-related deaths occurred. The most common grade 3 adverse events were thrombocytopenia (33.3 %) and anemia (11.1 %). The median progression-free and overall survival times were 6.8 months (range, 4.5–19.8 months) and 9.6 months (5.4–30.4 months), respectively. Conclusions: This study shows that gemcitabine- and cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy is feasible and tolerable in patients with unresectable and non-metastatic biliary tract cancer.