Background: Chemotherapeutic treatment of cholangiocarcinoma is largely ineffective, because it is due to non-responsive for the obscured reason of the cancer to anticancer agents. Study was to investigate the cytotoxicity effects of chemotherapeutic agents and curcumin in vitro.

Objective: To test sensitivity of cholangiocarcinoma cell lines to chemotherapeutic agents and curcumin

Material and Methods: Three cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) cell lines, including KKU-100, KKU-M214 and KKU-OCA17 were used in the study. All cell lines were treated with three chemotherapeutic agents (5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin and carboplatin) or curcumin. The cell viability was determined under a fluorescence microscope by counting the number of living and dead cells after treatment.

Results: KKU-100 and KKU-M214 were the very sensitive cell lines to doxorubicin (IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.4 to 0.7 nmol/l), whereas KKU-OCA17 was relatively more resistant cell line. Interestingly, all cell lines were sensitive to curcumin (IC₅₀ values ranging from 3 to 17 mmol/l).

Conclusion: This study showed different degrees of  sensitivity of CCA cell lines to various chemotherapeutic agents. The data could serve as  basic information for chemotherapeutic selection for the treatment in CCA patients. Moreover curcumin exhibits the cytotoxicity on CCA cell lines, thereby it is suggested to that curcumin may be useful in the development of strategy for chemotherapy of CCA cancer.

Keywords: cholangiocarcinoma, curcumin, chemotherapeutic agent