Klatskin Tumor Treatment

Klatskin Tumor Treatment

Klatskin tumor, or bile duct cancer, is very rare. The exact rates of this pathology cannot be calculated, because making a correct diagnosis is a difficult task. Patients with chronic liver and biliary tract diseases are at risk. A pathology can also develop due to genetic predisposition, alcohol abuse and consuming tobacco products, exposure to toxic substances, or parasitic infections.

How are the Klatskin tumors treated?

Oftentimes, the only effective treatment that can provide a complete cure for patients with Klatskin tumors is the complete tumor removal. Usually, it is necessary to remove a lobe of the liver in combination with the removal of the tumor from the bile duct, because tumors very often invade the blood vessels of the liver.

A Klatskin tumor can be removed if the tumor has not penetrated the blood supply system of one lobe of the liver or a tumor has not invaded the bile duct of one lobe of the liver. Because the Klatskin tumor originates near the liver, it often grows into the blood vessels of the liver. If there is no tumor in the blood vessels of the lobes of the liver, the part of the liver where the tumor has sprouted can be removed. In other cases, Klatskin tumors affect bile ducts in the liver. The ducts of one or both lobes of the liver may be affected.

Conservative treatment for Klatskin tumors

In 70% of cases, neoplasms are considered unresectable. Patients can still undergo surgery, but surgical interventions are palliative and only allow to eliminate jaundice. For many of such patients, radiotherapy becomes the main therapeutic option. It is supplemented with medications. Some patients may also receive targeted therapy, which is selected individually, according to the results of molecular genetic tests.

Sometimes chemoembolization of the hepatic artery branches is used to treat the disease. The indications for using this method depend on the peculiarities of the tumor blood supply. Vessels that feed a tumor are closed by microspheres saturated with chemotherapeutic agents. As a result, the tumor decreases in size, because its blood supply is disturbed. A large dose of cytostatics enter the cancer cells, as they are gradually released from the microspheres.

Treatment of metastatic tumors

Provided that the Klatskin tumor has not affected the blood vessels, it is likely that surgery, chemoembolization, or radioembolization may be recommended. If the Klatskin tumor has metastasized to the blood vessels of the liver, it is unlikely to be removed surgically, although it is difficult to draw absolute conclusions.

Despite the efforts of physicians, some patients with Klatskin tumors have a poor prognosis. Treatment of patients with inoperable Klatskin tumors with stereotactic radiosurgery can significantly improve prognosis in many cases and is a very promising method.

To choose the most effective Klatskin tumor treatment, an examination is necessary, which may include blood tests, abdominal CT with three-phase imaging, abdominal MRI, PET, biopsy, tests for genetic mutations of tumor cells, consultations of the hepatobiliary surgeon and oncologist.

Based on the information in the diagnosis, different types of targeted therapy combined with chemotherapy can be recommended, which is currently recognized as an effective treatment for metastatic forms of Klatskin tumors.

Treating Klatskin tumors abroad during a lockdown

The pandemic “stress test”, which national health systems around the world had to pass, showed that not all countries are able to cope with it well. Many patients forced to find a solution to their medical problem are now interested in going abroad for treatment. However, the lockdown regimen is still on in many countries, and many people don’t know how to go about it.

The medical tourism company Booking Health offers you services that will make the idea of going for treatment abroad during a lockdown easy. Booking Health will organize every little aspect of your treatment, provide a favourable cost for treatment and visa support, which is probably one of the most confusing areas of arranging the treatment during the pandemic.

You don’t have to struggle with doing everything on your own! Booking Health is ready to help you with Klatskin tumor treatment right now. All you need to do is to leave a request on the Booking Health website for the medical consultant to contact you.