Department of Oncology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Correspondence to: Ming-Huang Chen. Department of Oncology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. Email: mhchen9@vghtpe.gov.tw.
Abstract: Patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) have poor prognosis so novel treatment is warranted for advanced CCA. CCA are categorized according to anatomical location, including intrahepatic CCA, gall bladder cancer, perihilar CCA, or distal CCA. Each subtype has a distinct epidemiology, prognosis, and biology. Surgical resection remains the mainstay of potentially curative treatment for all disease subtypes. For patients with advanced-stage or unresectable disease, systemic chemotherapy is still the standard treatment. Recently, advances in comprehensive gene (whole exome or transcriptomics) sequencing have defined the genetic landscape of each cholangiocarcinoma subtype. Therefore, promising molecular targets, like IDH1/2, FGFR, NTRK, etc., have been identified, and are being explored in clinical trials. Biomarker-driven trials, in which patients are stratified according to genetic aberrations, will be essential in the development of targeted therapies in CCA.
