Aims and background: The case of a 70-year-old patient with resectable, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the ampulla of Vater is presented.
Patient and methods: Due to intraoperative hemorrhagic complications, surgical resection was not feasible. The patient was treated with radiochemotherapy consisting of external beam radiotherapy (50.4 Gy; 1.8 Gy/fraction; 5 fractions/week) plus 5-FU (1000 mg/m2/day, continuous i.v. infusion, days 2-5, week 1 and 5 of radiotherapy) and mitomycin C (10 mg/m2 i.v., day 2, week 1 of radiotherapy).
Results: At five years' follow-up the patient was in good general condition, without any signs of disease according to CT scan, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and tumor marker determination. Multiple random biopsies performed in the ampullary region were negative for tumor growth.
Conclusions: In patients with ampullary carcinoma the use of concurrent chemoradiation should be considered, particularly when surgical resection is unfeasible due to medical contraindications or locally advanced disease.