Biliary tract cancer (BTC) is a rare disease with poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. The only potential curative treatment for BTC is surgical resection. However, more than 50% of patients present with unresectable disease at diagnosis. BTC is heterogeneous from a pathological and molecular perspective, with significant differences between intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (eCCA) and gallbladder cancer (GBC). There is a growing evidence in favor of immunotherapy and biomarker-directed treatments in BTC, such as FGFR2 inhibitors, IDH1 inhibitors, BRAF plus MEK inhibitors or HER2 inhibitors, and immune checkpoint inhibitors as single agents in MSI H patients.
Even if there is growing support for targeted systemic therapy for BTCs, most patients don’t have a durable benefit and more data are needed regarding resistance mechanisms and new treatment approaches. This is especially true for extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder carcinoma, for which the evidence for biomarker directed treatment is smaller than for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.
This Research Topic welcomes quantitative and qualitative research, both original, and systematic reviews informative on predictive biomarkers and resistance mechanisms to treatment. We're interested in innovative treatment approaches to address primary and acquired resistance to immunotherapy and targeted therapy for advanced BTCs, including new combination treatments and multimodal approaches.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Biliary tract cancer (BTC) is a rare disease with poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. The only potential curative treatment for BTC is surgical resection. However, more than 50% of patients present with unresectable disease at diagnosis. BTC is heterogeneous from a pathological and molecular perspective, with significant differences between intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (eCCA) and gallbladder cancer (GBC). There is a growing evidence in favor of immunotherapy and biomarker-directed treatments in BTC, such as FGFR2 inhibitors, IDH1 inhibitors, BRAF plus MEK inhibitors or HER2 inhibitors, and immune checkpoint inhibitors as single agents in MSI H patients.
Even if there is growing support for targeted systemic therapy for BTCs, most patients don’t have a durable benefit and more data are needed regarding resistance mechanisms and new treatment approaches. This is especially true for extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder carcinoma, for which the evidence for biomarker directed treatment is smaller than for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.
This Research Topic welcomes quantitative and qualitative research, both original, and systematic reviews informative on predictive biomarkers and resistance mechanisms to treatment. We're interested in innovative treatment approaches to address primary and acquired resistance to immunotherapy and targeted therapy for advanced BTCs, including new combination treatments and multimodal approaches.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.