Onkológia 3/2012

Systemic therapy of biliary tract cancers

Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) are invasive carcinomas that arise from the epithelial lining of the gallbladder and bile ducts. The term BTC includes both cholangiocarcinoma, which has been used to refer to cancers arising in the intrahepatic, perihilar, or distal biliary tree, and carcinoma arising from the gallbladder. The vast majority of cholangiocarcinomas and gallbladder cancers are adenocarcinoma. Complete surgical resection offers the only chance for cure; however, only 10% of patients present with early-stage disease and are considered surgical candidates. Among those patients who do undergo „curative” resection, recurrence rates are high; thus, for the majority of BTC patients, systemic chemotherapy is the mainstay of their treatment plan. Patients with unresectable or metastatic BTC have a poor prognosis with a median overall survival time of <1 year. Despite a paucity of randomized phase III data, a consensus on first-line systemic therapy is emerging.

Keywords: biliary tract cancer, systemic therapy.