Group: Deep Organ Tumours
Cholangiocarcinoma
Treatment options in biliary tract tumours are limited and preserving the bile duct is critical. Electroporation-based approaches are being investigated in both percutaneous and endoluminal forms of delivery.
Clinical publications: randomized, prospective and retrospective studies, case series and case reports. Preclinical publications: animal, in vitro, modelling and experimental biophysics studies.
Literature Status by Method
Publication count, clinical and preclinical split, literature maturity and publication span for each clinical method. The badges at the top of the page summarise the IRE and ECT records separately; the full split by method is here.
Electrochemotherapy (ECT)
Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/4
No record for this method entered the maturity calculation; the records are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scope.
2018–2020
Irreversible electroporation (IRE)
Early clinical literaturethreshold 7/17
Validated records entering the maturity calculation: 7 (clinical 5, preclinical 0), 41% of the records for this method.
2012–2026
Other electroporation applications
This set does not name a single clinical method; no literature maturity is assigned.
2020–2026
Mechanisms Mentioned in Abstracts
Mechanism names are detected by automatic matching over publication abstracts; the figure is the number of publications containing the name. A mention does not mean the mechanism was demonstrated in that study.
Study Type Distribution
Bar length is scaled to the most common study type; the percentage gives the share of the whole area. Colour marks the study-type band, on the same scale as the literature map.
| Study type | Publications | Share within this area |
|---|---|---|
| Prospective Clinical Study | 2 | 8% |
| Clinical Study | 3 | 12% |
| Retrospective Clinical Study | 2 | 8% |
| Case Series | 1 | 4% |
| Case Report | 5 | 20% |
| Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | 2 | 8% |
| Review | 2 | 8% |
| Animal Study | 5 | 20% |
| In Silico / Modelling | 1 | 4% |
| Protocol | 2 | 8% |
Literature Evidence Table
25 publications listed in order of evidence strength. Click a title to open the citation, mechanism and full abstract drawer.
The study type, model and mechanism columns are assigned automatically and can be wrong for individual records; the abstract column is taken either from the publication's own abstract or from the opening text of the source PDF. The labels are there for scanning and filtering, not as record-level verified data; consult the full text before acting on any single publication. The classification rules and known errors are on the Literature Map.
| Regime | Publication | Year | Study type | Model | Mechanism | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRE | Belfiore et al · Med Oncol | 2020 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Cholangiocarcinoma (CC) accounts for about 3% of the gastrointestinal and 10-25% of all hepatobiliary malignancies. It arises from the epithelium of the bile duct and it can be classified in… |
| ECT | Tarantino et al · Eur J Surg Oncol | 2018 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | – | Aim: We evaluated feasibility, safety and efficacy of Electrochemotherapy (ECT) in a prospective series of patients with unresectable Perihilar-Cholangiocarcinoma (PHCCA). Patients and metho… |
| IRE | Franken et al · J Vasc Interv Radiol | 2022 | Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Purpose: To investigate the safety and efficacy of percutaneous or open irreversible electroporation (IRE) in a prospective cohort of patients with locally advanced, unresectable perihilar c… |
| IRE | Hsiao et al · Sci Rep | 2020 | Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a non-thermal ablation modality that has been shown to be safe and effective in its application to tumors that are close to risky areas. This study aims… |
| IRE | Martin et al · HPB (Oxford) | 2018 | Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Background: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) has successfully been used for palliation of pancreatic and liver cancers due to its ability to ablate tumors without destroying nearby vital s… |
| IRE | Thamtorawat et al · Int J Hyperthermia | 2022 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Objective: To evaluate the biliary complication rates and efficacy of peribiliary tumor ablation using irreversible electroporation (IRE) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Material and metho… |
| IRE | Silk et al · J Vasc Interv Radiol | 2014 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Purpose: To assess biliary complications after irreversible electroporation (IRE) ablation of hepatic tumors located < 1 cm from major bile ducts. Materials and methods: A retrospective revi… |
| IRE | Brichard et al · Front Surg | 2026 | Case Series | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Introduction: The incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is increasing worldwide and remains associated with a poor prognosis. Surgical resection is the only potentially curativ… |
| ECT | Tarantino et al · Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci | 2020 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Objective: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the second most common primary hepatic malignancy after hepatocellular carcinoma. The current standard palliative treatment, chemotherapy regimen with … |
| ECT | Tarantino et al · Digestive and Liver Disease | 2019 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | – OBJECTIVE: Cholangiocarcino- ma (CCA) is the second most common primary hepatic malignancy after hepatocellular carcinoma. The current standard palliative treatment, chemotherapy regimen w… |
| IRE | DeOliveira et al · HPB | 2016 | Case Report | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | ABLATION MODALITY M. L. DeOliveira, M. Glenck, H. Petrowski, T. Pfammatter, L. Castrezana and P. A. Clavien University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland Aims: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) i… |
| IRE | Melenhorst et al · Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol | 2015 | Case Report | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a novel image-guided ablation technique that is rapidly gaining popularity in the treatment of malignant tumors located near large vessels or bile ducts… |
| IRE | Kasivisvanathan et al · Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol | 2012 | Case Report | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | Patients with chemotherapy-refractory liver metastases who are not candidates for surgery may be treated with focal ablation techniques with established survival benefits. Irreversible elect… |
| Other EP | Pallas · Liver Int | 2026 | Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the second most common primary liver cancer and is being diagnosed with increasing frequency worldwide. We performed a systematic review on radiofrequency (RFA), … |
| IRE | Scrofani et al · Br J Radiol | 2024 | Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Objectives The prognosis of patients with perihilar-cholangiocarcinoma (PHC) is poor, with the majority presenting with unresectable disease at diagnosis. Palliative chemotherapy (CHT) is th… |
| Other EP | Charalampopoulos et al · Medicina (Kaunas) | 2023 | Review | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an invasive cancer accounting for <1% of all cancers and 10-15% of primary liver cancers. Intrahepatic CCA (iCCA) is associated with poor survival rates and high … |
| IRE | Papamichail et al · J BUON | 2017 | Review | Literature Analysis | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Purpose: We aimed to provide an overview of current understanding on the potential use of irreversible electroporation (IRE) in the field of hepatobiliary surgery with a focus on current res… |
| Other EP | Izzo et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2020 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Necrosis and Necroptosis, Electrode Geometry and Placement | The aim of the study is to evaluate the usability aspects of new deployable, expandable, electrode prototypes, in terms of suitability solutions for laparoscopic applications on the liver, e… |
| ECT | Zmuc et al · Sci Rep | 2019 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | The first clinical studies on the use of electrochemotherapy to treat liver tumours that were not amenable to surgery or thermal ablation techniques have recently been published. However, th… |
| IRE | Ueshima et al · Gastrointest Endosc | 2018 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Background and aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and early safety of catheter-directed irreversible electroporation (IRE) of the normal common bile duct (CBD) in sw… |
| IRE | Zeng et al · Radiol Oncol | 2016 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Necrosis and Necroptosis | Background: The ablation of liver tumors located close to the gallbladder is likely to lead to complications. The aim of this article is to compare the safety and efficacy of irreversible el… |
| IRE | Chen et al · Sci Rep | 2015 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) with microsecond-pulsed electric fields (μsPEFs) can effectively ablate hepatocellular carcinomas in animal models. This preclinical study evaluates the fe… |
| Other EP | Binen et al · 2026 8th International Congress on Human-Computer Interaction, Optimization and Robotic Applications (ICHORA) | 2026 | In Silico / Modelling | Cell Culture | Electric Field Distribution and Modelling | The use of electroporation in various medical treatments is becoming popular. In oncology applications, electroporation-based treatment is an effective method for cancer treatment and tumor … |
| IRE | Kalra et al · Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol | 2024 | Protocol | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of chemotherapy combined with irreversible electroporation (IRE) in patients with locally advanced gallbladder carcinoma (GB… |
| IRE | Coelen et al · BMJ Open | 2017 | Protocol | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Introduction: The majority of patients with perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (PHC) has locally advanced disease or distant lymph node metastases on presentation or exploratory laparotomy, which … |
No publication matches these filters.
Limitations
The counts on this page are bounded by the scope of the source PDF archive and are not a systematic review of the area's literature.
A literature maturity label reflects the number of publications, not their methodological quality: it describes how much literature exists in the area and of what kind, not how strongly the treatment is supported. It does not indicate clinical use, guideline endorsement, reimbursement coverage or regulatory status, and it is not a formal GRADE assessment. The definitions and thresholds of the four tiers are on the Literature Map.
The “clinical publications” figure on this page (13) uses the portal's single definition: primary clinical studies, case series and case reports. Systematic reviews and guidelines are not included. The count feeding the badge threshold is narrower and does not count case reports; in this area 5 publications enter that threshold count across every method together (ECT 0 · IRE 5 · Other EP 0), whereas the badge at the top of the page rests on the ECT count alone. The two counts are not the same and cannot stand in for one another; the full threshold table is on the Literature Map.
7 of the 25 records in this area enter the threshold count. The remaining 18 are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scoring; they appear in the table below but affect no threshold and no badge. That share (28%) is not equal across areas: it is 13% portal-wide and ranges from 0% to 42% by area. Two areas' badges therefore cannot be compared directly; a lower badge can reflect narrower verification coverage as much as a narrower literature.
Literature maturity on this page is given separately for each clinical method. The methods present in this area are: Electrochemotherapy (ECT), Irreversible electroporation (IRE), Other electroporation applications. Methods may share the same biophysical basis but they are distinct treatments; evidence gathered for one method cannot be generalised to another.