Table 1.

Some studies in which brachytherapy has been used with palliative intent

No.	No of patients	Diagnosis	PTBD	EBRT	Dose of ILBT	Survival	Stent patency	Ref.
1	18	Malignant biliary obstruction	Yes	-	16 Gy in 2 fractions	8.27 mo (median survival)	-	Aggarwal et al[34]
2	48	Bile duct and pancreatic cancer	Yes	-	25 pulses of 0.8 Gy hourly (total dose of 20 Gy PDR)	11.2 mo for bile duct carcinoma	-	Skowronek et al[36]
3	32	Non resectable biliary malignancy	Yes	-	5 Gy in 6 fractions	358 d in Klatskintumour	418 d	Bruha et al[37]
4	22	Malignant biliary obstruction	Yes	Yes	15-31 Gy (mean 25 Gy)	22.6 mo	19.5 mo	Eschelman et al[39]
5	12	Malignant obstructive jaundice	Yes	Yes (6 patients)	10-14 Gy	-	9.8 mo	Jain et al[40]
6	34	Malignant obstructive jaundice	Yes	-	14-21 Gy in 3-4 fractions	9.4 mo	12.6 mo	Chen et al[43]
7	14	Bile duct cancers	Yes	Yes (5 patients)	10 Gy, 2 fractions of 2.5 Gy 6 h apart for 2 d	6.5 mo (median survival)	-	Mayer et al[44]
8	8	Malignant obstruction of bile duct	Yes	-	2 fractions of 10 Gy each	7.5 mo	6.9 mo	Kocak et al[45]

PTBD: Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage; EBRT: External beam radiation therapy; ILBT: Intraluminal brachytherapy.