Routinely Used Diagnostic Approaches: Only Limited Diagnostic Sensitivity For Bile Duct Cancer?

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Article Date: 14 Mar 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Surgery is the only curative treatment in patients with bile duct cancer. To develop a therapeutic concept a reliable diagnostic procedure is of great importance in these patients. Due to longitudinal tumor growth along the bile duct, imaging techniques including ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging are of limited sensitivity for the detection of bile duct cancer. Brush cytology and/or forceps biopsy during endoscopy are routinely used for distinction between benign bile duct stricture and bile duct cancer. The current study was designed to address the question of diagnostic sensitivity for brush cytology and forceps biopsy in a homogeneous patient group with bile duct cancer.

This research, performed by a team led by Prof. Dr. Christian Prinz and his colleagues, is described in a research article to be published in the February 21, 2008 issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

In 41.4% of patients, positive results for malignancy were obtained using brush cytology and in 53.4% of patients positive results were obtained using forceps biopsy. The combination of both techniques resulted in only a minor increase in diagnostic sensitivity - up to 60.3%. Overall, in 23 out of 58 patients, definitive diagnosis could not be achieved using the combination of brush cytology and forceps biopsy.

In the view of the authors the results for routinely used diagnostic approaches in patients with bile duct cancer are disappointing. Therefore, additional diagnostic techniques should be evaluated and should become routine in patients with negative cytological and histological findings.

Further research should clarify diagnostic utility of new diagnostic approaches such as modern molecular markers for bile duct cancer.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Reference: Weber A, von Weyhern C, Fend F, Schneider J, Neu B, Meining A, Weidenbach H, Schmid RM, Prinz C. Endoscopic transpapillary brush cytology and forceps biopsy in patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2008; 14(7): 1097-1101 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/1097.asp

Correspondence to: Professor Christian Prinz, Department of Internal Medicine II, Technical University of Munich, Ismaningerstrasse 22, Munchen 81675, Germany.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection for providing a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. The WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

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The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Source: Jing Zhu
World Journal of Gastroenterology