Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2024; 12(30): 6413-6416
Published online Oct 26, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i30.6413
Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography: An effective option for endo-biliary radiofrequency ablation before stent insertion in unresectable biliary cancer?
Dimitrios S Karagiannakis
Dimitrios S Karagiannakis, Academic Department of Gastroenterology, Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, "Laiko" General Hospital, Athens 11527, Greece
Author contributions: Karagiannakis DS contributed to writing, review, and editing, writing original draft, supervision, resources, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, data curation, and conceptualization.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Dimitrios S Karagiannakis, MD, PhD, Academic Research, Lecturer, Academic Department of Gastroenterology, Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, "Laiko" General Hospital, Aghiou Thoma 17, Athens, Greece, Athens 11527, Greece. dkarag@med.uoa.gr
Received: May 18, 2024
Revised: August 19, 2024
Accepted: August 27, 2024
Published online: October 26, 2024
Processing time: 108 Days and 23.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Ablate or not prior to stent insertion in patients with unresectable biliary cancer? The role of endo-biliary radiofrequency ablation before stent remains unclear regarding the overall survival and the prolongation of stent patency. Contrary results are probably attributed to differences in the studies' design, cancer extensiveness, patient performance status, and applied technique. Moreover, it has to be clarified whether percutaneous transhepatic cholangiodrainage overcomes endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography as the method of choice for performing ablation, especially in more complicated cases.