Review

*Author for correspondence:

E-mail Address: nina.beri@nyulangone.org

Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA

Published Online:25 Apr 2023https://doi.org/10.2217/imt-2022-0288

Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma is an epithelial malignancy originating in the biliary tracts and frequently recurs even with surgical resection. Unresectable disease has a 5-year overall survival of less than 10%. Given this poor prognosis, additional therapies are urgently needed. Chemotherapy has been the mainstay of treatment for many years. However, with the incorporation of immunotherapy into the treatment of other malignancies, there has been a great deal of interest in immunotherapy for biliary cancers. Recently, durvalumab was approved in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin for the treatment of unresectable cholangiocarcinoma in the first-line setting. However, predicting which patients may respond to immunotherapy remains a challenge due to the lack of a reliable biomarker.

Plain language summary

Cholangiocarcinoma is a type of cancer that originates in the bile ducts. Unfortunately, this tumor has a poor prognosis and frequently recurs despite surgical resection. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop additional therapies. Immunotherapy has been integrated into the treatment of multiple types of cancers, and there is interest in integrating immunotherapy into the treatment of biliary cancers as well. Most recently, the TOPAZ-1 study led to the approval of durvalumab added to gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy. There are additional ongoing studies evaluating the use of combination immunotherapies, local therapies such as radiation plus immunotherapy as well as other multimodality treatments.

Keywords:

Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest; •• of considerable interest

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Vol. 15, No. 7

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Received 29 November 2022

Accepted 16 March 2023

Published online 25 April 2023

Published in print May 2023

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To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.futuremedicine.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/imt-2022-0288

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

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Immune checkpoint inhibitors in cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

Plain language summary

References