Therapeutic outcomes and prognostic factors of unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: A data mining analysis

Abstract

Prognosis of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is unsatisfactory. Tumor, host, and treatment factors including hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) are intricately involved in the progression of ICC. We aimed to identify profiles associated with disease control rate (DCR) and the prognosis of patients with unresectable ICC by decision tree analysis. We analyzed 31 consecutive patients with unresectable ICC (median age, 71 years; the male ratio was 58.1%). Stage IVB occupied 51.6% of patients, and 38.7% and 58.1% of patients were treated with gemcitabine plus cisplatin combination therapy and HAIC, respectively. Profiles associated with prognosis as well as DCR were investigated by decision tree analysis. The median survival time (MST) of the patients was 11.6 months, and the DCR was 70.9%. Multivariate correlation analysis showed that albumin levels and WBC levels were significantly correlated with survival time (albumin, ρ = 0.3572, p = 0.0485; WBC, ρ = −0.4008, p = 0.0280). In decision tree analysis, WBC level was selected as the initial split variable, and subjects with WBC levels of 6800/µL or less (45.1%) showed a long survival time (MST 476 days). We also demonstrated that the profile associated with the highest DCR was “less than 4.46 mg/dL of CRP levels and treatment with HAIC”. We demonstrated a new prognostic profile for ICC patients, which consisted of WBC and CRP levels. Moreover, we demonstrated that HAIC was associated with better disease control in ICC patients with low CPR levels. Thus, these new profiles may be useful for the management of ICC patients.