ASCO GI Highlights

A recent epidemiological study showed that the incidence of cholangiocarcinoma has been increasing in the United States, and researchers sifted the data with an aim to help plan prevention and treatment strategies.

Researchers investigated risk factors for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and the prognostic significance of tumor multiplicity identified by surgical resection.

A retrospective review was conducted using the hidden-genome classifier to quantify the genetic heterogeneity of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with a view toward improved tumor classification.

The clinical benefit of durvalumab plus GemCis in patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma has been proved, but affordability of the regimen remains a concern. A cost analysis of this treatment regimen considers issues related to outcomes versus the financial toxicity experienced by patients.

The ongoing open-label, multicenter, phase 2a LUC2001 study is investigating the efficacy and safety of the FGFR inhibitor erdafitinib in a molecularly defined subset of Asian patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) harboring FGFR alterations whose disease progressed after ≥1 previous systemic therapies.

Given that monotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors, including the PD-1 inhibitor tislelizumab, has a modest effect in advanced biliary tract cancers, several combination strategies to improve the antitumor activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors are being explored.

The majority of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) present with advanced liver disease and are not candidates for curative resection. The current standard of care for patients with unresectable intrahepatic CCA is palliative chemotherapy with gemcitabine plus cisplatin.

Biliary tract cancers have dismal prognosis, and the treatment options are limited. Up to 15% of patients with biliary tract cancer have HER2-positive disease. Tucatinib is a highly selective HER2-­directed tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Ivosidenib is a first-in-class inhibitor of IDH1 mutation that is indicated for the treatment of previously treated, locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and IDH1 mutation. This indication was approved based on the results of the phase 3 ClarIDHy clinical trial, which demonstrated significant improvement in progression-free survival with ivosidenib compared with placebo in patients with previously treated, unresectable or metastatic CCA harboring IDH1 mutations.