How does chemotherapy treat cholangiocarcinoma?

How does chemotherapy treat cholangiocarcinoma?

Chemotherapy (chemo) uses drugs to destroy cancer. Systemic chemotherapy that goes through your entire body can be used to shrink your tumor to make surgery possible. If the cancer is too advanced for surgery, chemotherapy is used to prolong life and reduce the symptoms of the cancer. In some cases, procedures can be done to deliver chemo directly to your bile duct:

• Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), which uses a catheter to implant tiny beads of chemo in the blood vessels supplying the tumor. The beads block the vessel to prevent blood from getting to the tumor. At the same time, the beads release chemo medications to shrink the tumor.
• Hepatic artery infusion (HAI), which uses a surgically implanted pump to inject chemo directly into the main artery that brings blood to the liver. It’s controversial whether these are truly effective or not.