Hepatic Arterial Infusion Pump Chemotherapy for Unresectable Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Patients with unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) have poor survival. This systematic review describes the survival outcomes of hepatic arterial infusion pump (HAIP) chemotherapy with floxuridine for patients with unresectable iCCA.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A literature search was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed, Medline (Ovid), Embase, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Cochrane to find studies that reported data on the survival of patients with unresectable iCCA treated with HAIP chemotherapy using floxuridine. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment Scale (NOS). Overall survival (OS) was the primary outcome measure, and progression-free survival (PFS), response rates, resection rates, and toxicity were defined as secondary outcome measures.

RESULTS: After removing duplicates, 661 publications were assessed, of which nine studies, representing a total of 478 patients, met the inclusion criteria. Three out of nine studies were phase II clinical trials, one study was a prospective dose-escalation study, and the remaining five studies were retrospective cohort studies. After accounting for overlapping cohorts, 154 unique patients were included for pooled analysis. The weighted median OS of patients with unresectable iCCA treated with HAIP chemotherapy with floxuridine was 29.0 months (range 25.0-39 months). The pooled 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year OS were 86.4, 55.5, 39.5, and 9.7%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: HAIP chemotherapy with floxuridine for patients with unresectable iCCA was associated with a 3-year OS of 39.5%, which is favorable compared with systemic chemotherapy for which no 3-year survivors were reported in the Advanced Biliary Cancer (ABC) trials.