Interventional Radiology Therapies for Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma

Most patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma are diagnosed at an advanced stage with a poor prognosis. Although surgical resection and liver transplant are potentially curative treatment options, only a minority of patients have resectable disease at the time of diagnosis. Additional palliative treatments for unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, including systemic chemotherapy, have limited efficacy. Interventional radiology offers several minimally invasive locoregional treatment options for liver-confined and liver-dominant metastatic disease, including percutaneous thermal ablation, transarterial chemoembolization, and transarterial radioembolization. These interventions are important additions to therapy that are generally well-tolerated by patients. This chapter provides an overview of the different interventional radiology treatments for unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and summarizes the available clinical data.