ASCO Highlights

Researchers are investigating novel combination therapies, including immunotherapies and poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, to improve survival in patients with biliary tract cancer; here, the BilT-02 study is summarized.

Preliminary results from the phase 2b HERIZON-BTC-01 study investigating the efficacy of zanidatamab in patients with HER2-positive biliary tract cancer are presented.

A subanalysis of the STAMP trial examines the clinical impact of using circulating tumor DNA for detecting molecular residual disease and monitoring in patients with CCA in the adjuvant setting.

The researchers found that EGFR amplifications and FGFR3 fusions may be important predictive biomarkers in biliary tract cancer (BTC) and may serve as a future target for systemic anticancer therapy in patients with BTC.

Pashtoon Kasi, MD, MS, presented results of a study exploring the utility of circulating tumor DNA–based comprehensive genomic profiling to detect actionable rearrangements in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies.

Patients with advanced biliary tract cancers (BTCs) have a poor prognosis despite systemic chemotherapy. Gemcitabine/cisplatin (GemCis) is the standard first-line systemic therapy for BTCs; however, median overall survival was only 11.7 months.

For patients with localized intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), surgical resection holds curative potential for only 30% to 35% of patients due to its high rate of recurrence.

Although gemcitabine plus platinum/fluorouracil combinations are the standard first-line treatment for advanced biliary tract cancers (BTCs), the overall outcomes are suboptimal.

Results of the randomized, double-blind, global, phase 3 TOPAZ-1 trial demonstrated that the first-line chemoimmunotherapy regimen of the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab plus gemcitabine/cisplatin (GemCis; median follow-up, 16.8 months) significantly improved overall survival (OS) versus placebo plus GemCis (median follow-up, 15.9 months) in patients with advanced biliary tract cancers (BTCs).¹