Emerging Therapies in Management of Cholangiocarcinoma

Cancers (Basel). 2024 Jan 31;16(3):613. doi: 10.3390/cancers16030613.

Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma is a heterogeneous group of biliary tract cancers that has a poor prognosis and globally increasing incidence and mortality. While surgical resection remains the only curative option for the treatment of cholangiocarcinoma, the majority of cancers are unresectable at the time of diagnosis. Additionally, the prognosis of cholangiocarcinoma remains poor even with the current first-line systemic therapy regimens, highlighting the difficulty of treating locally advanced, metastatic, or unresectable cholangiocarcinoma. Through recent developments, targetable oncogenic driver mutations have been identified in the pathogenesis of cholangiocarcinoma, leading to the utilization of molecular targeted therapeutics. In this review, we comprehensively discuss the latest molecular therapeutics for the treatment of cholangiocarcinoma, including emerging immunotherapies, highlighting promising developments and strategies.

Keywords: biliary tract cancer; cholangiocarcinoma; genomic aberration; genomics; immunotherapy; molecular targeted therapies; precision medicine; systemic therapy; targeted therapy.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.