Management and outcomes of patients with recurrent intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma following previous curative intent surgical resection.

Abstract

349 Background: Many patients develop recurrence following resection of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma(ICC). Management and outcomes of patients with recurrent ICC following previous curative-intent surgery are not well documented. We sought to characterize the treatment of patients with recurrent ICC and define therapy-specific outcomes. Methods: Between 1990-2013, 542 patients who underwent surgery for ICC were identified from an international database. Data on clinicopathological characteristics, operative details, recurrence and recurrence-related management were recorded and analyzed. Results: At initial surgery, treatment was resection only(96.1%) or resection+RFA(3.9%). Overall 5-year survival was 25.9%; 376(69.4%) patients recurred with a median disease-free survival of 11.0 months. Vascular invasion(hazard ratio [HR]=1.43), nodal metastasis(HR=1.40) and poor differentiation(HR=1.30) were predictive of recurrence(all P<0.05). First recurrence site was intrahepatic only (62.0%), extrahepatic only (14.1%), or intra- and extrahepatic(23.9%). Overall 259(68.9%) patients received treatment for recurrent ICC, while 117(31.1%) received best supportive care(BSC). Among patients who received treatment for recurrent disease, therapy consisted of systemic chemotherapy only(49.4%), repeat liver-directed therapy (25.9%), or systemic chemotherapy+liver-directed therapy(24.7%). Repeat liver-directed therapy consisted of repeat hepatic resection±ablation(30.5%), ablation alone (21.4%), and intra-arterial therapy(IAT)(48.1%). Among patients who recurred, median survival from the time of the recurrence was 11.0 months(BSC-7.7 months, systemic chemotherapy only-10.0 months, liver-directed therapy-18.0 months). The median survival of patients undergoing resection of recurrent ICC was 26.7 months versus 7.6 months for patients who had IAT(P<0.001). Conclusions: Recurrence following resection of ICC is common, occurring in up to two-thirds of patients. When recurrence occurs, prognosis is poor. In well-selected patients with liver only recurrence, resection+chemotherapy may offer a modest survival benefit.