Next-generation sequencing-guided molecular-targeted therapy and immunotherapy for biliary tract cancers.

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy is a standard regimen for advanced or relapsed biliary tract cancer (BTC) with a 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of approximately 5% and a median OS of less than a year. Targeted therapies and immunotherapy aimed at providing more personalized treatments for BTCs have been tested. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of targeted therapy and immunotherapy on advanced BTC patients. METHODS: Twenty-four advanced/relapsed BTC patients were enrolled and examined with next-generation sequencing (NGS). Eight of them received NGS-guided targeted or immunotherapy, and the other 16 patients underwent routine chemotherapy. Comparison analysis of OS and objective response rate (ORR) was performed. RESULTS: IDH1, BRCA2, MAP2K1, and BRAF (V600E) were the major actionable genes mutated in this cohort. Patients who received NGS-guided therapy exhibited higher OS (not achieved vs. 6.5 months, p < 0.001) and ORR (87.5% vs. 25%, p < 0.001) than those without targetable mutations and who received first-line chemotherapy. BTCs harboring mutations in IDH1, ATM/BRCA2, or MAP2K1/BRAF (V600E) received treatment with dasatinib, olaparib, or trametinib, respectively. Three of the patients had high tumor mutation burden (TMB-H) and were treated with immune-checkpoint inhibitors and chemotherapy. All these patients achieved complete response or partial response. CONCLUSIONS: NGS-guided targeted therapy and immunotherapy are promising personalized therapies for advanced or relapsed BTCs. TMB is a useful biomarker for predicting immunotherapy efficacy.

Triple therapy in biliary tract cancers: GemOX plus immune checkpoint inhibitor in combination with lenvatinib or NGS-guided targeted therapy.

PURPOSE: The combination of gemcitabine-based chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors has a good efficacy in advanced biliary tract cancer (BTC). The multi-target TKI lenvatinib and NGS-guided targeted therapy are also promising in BTC treatment. This study aimed to explore the performance of GemOX plus sintilimab and TKI (either lenvatinib or by NGS-guided targeted therapy) for local advanced or metastatic BTCs. METHODS: This prospective single-arm study included patients with local advanced or metastatic BTCs and applied intravenous infusion of standard GemOX plus sintilimab and lenvatinib (no targetable gene alterations) or targeted therapy based on NGS (olaparib for BRCA1/2 mutation, dasatinib for IDH1/2 mutation, afatinib for EGFR amplification, lenvatinib for PDGFR and KIT mutation, and lenvatinib for FGFR/KIT mutation). RESULTS: From November 2020 to December 2021, 22 patients BTCs (6 GBC, 14 iCCA, 1 pCCA and 1 dCCA cases) were enrolled, with an average age of 58.4 years. Partial response (PR) was achieved in 10 cases, stable disease (SD) in 9 cases and progression disease (PD) in 3 cases (13.6%). The objective response rate (ORR) was 45.5%, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 86.4%. During the treatment, the incidence of adverse reactions was 81.8%, and the incidence of grade 3/4 adverse events was 9.09%. For 14 patients with NGS, 5 patients were treated by targeted therapy and there were 1 SD and 4 PR cases. For four patients with positive PD-L1 expression, the ORR was 100%. While among the three patients with super-progression markers such as RET, MDM2 and FGF14/STK24, there were two SD and one PD cases. CONCLUSION: In patients with advanced BTCs, the combination of GemOX plus sintilimab and lenvatinib or NGS-guided targeted therapy showed promising ORR and DCR, especially for the patients with positive PD-L1 expression and targetable gene alterations.

Elevated serum CA19-9 indicates severe liver inflammation and worse survival after curative resection in hepatitis B-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

We explored the prognostic value of preoperative CA19-9 in α-fetoprotein (AFP)-positive and -negative HCC with hepatitis B virus (HBV) background (HBV-HCC), and explored the underlying mechanism. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed in HBV-HCC patients who underwent curative resection (Cohort 1). Immunohistochemical staining of CA19-9 in HCC and liver parenchyma were quantified in another cohort of 216 patients with resected HCC (Cohort 2). Immunohistochemical staining of CA19-9 and serum CA19-9 level was also compared between patients with HCC and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) (Cohort 3). In Cohort 1, CA19-9 ≥ 39 U/mL was an independent risk factor for RFS (HR = 1.507, 95% CI = 1.087-2.091, p = 0.014) and OS (HR = 1.646, 95% CI = 1.146-2.366, p = 0.007). CA19-9 ≥ 39 U/mL was also associated with significantly higher incidence of macrovascular invasion (MaVI) compared with CA19-9 < 39 U/mL (23.0% vs. 7.2%, p = 0.002), and elevated aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), and lower albumin. Immunohistochemical staining of CA19-9 revealed that CA19-9 expression was found exclusively in the background liver but not in HCC tumor cells. In contrast, tumor tissue was the main source of CA19-9 in ICC patients. CA19-9 ≥ 39 U/mL was associated with worse OS and RFS in both AFP-positive and negative HCC patients. CA19-9 indicated more severe inflammation and cirrhosis in the liver of HCC patients.

Systemic treatment of advanced or recurrent biliary tract cancer.

Biliary tract cancer (BTC) is a disease entity comprising diverse epithelial tumors with features of cholangiocyte differentiation, and it includes cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and gallbladder cancer (GBC). Depending on its anatomical location, cholangiocarcinoma is categorized as intrahepatic (iCCA), perihilar (pCCA), or distal (dCCA). Nearly two-thirds of patients with biliary tract cancer present with advanced disease at diagnosis and in 68-86% of resections the cancer eventually recurs either locoregionally or at a distance. Chemotherapy is the first-line therapy for advanced or recurrent BTC. With the development of next-generation sequencing (NGS)-guided molecular targeted therapy, more options are available for treatment of advanced BTC. Chemotherapy, and especially a triplet regimen based on gemcitabine/cisplatin/nab-paclitaxel, has had the most significant effect, and fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan plus oxaliplatin (FOLFIRINOX) combined with bevacizumab is promising. Molecular targeted therapy should be based on genome sequencing and appears essential to precision medicine. Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitors and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) inhibitors are promising emerging targeted therapies mainly for iCCA. Other targeted therapies such as anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) therapies, MEK inhibitors, BRAF inhibitors, and poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors had tentatively displayed efficacy. Further evaluations of combination strategies in particular are needed. An immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) alone is less efficacious, but an ICI in addition to chemotherapy or radiotherapy has resulted in a response according to many case series. However, ICIs are still being evaluated in several ongoing studies. Combination therapies have garnered attention because of interactions between signaling pathways of carcinogenesis in BTC.