Prospective phase II trial of gemcitabine in combination with irinotecan as first-line chemotherapy in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer.

BACKGROUND

Chemotherapy is a critical treatment option in advanced biliary tract cancer (BTC), which is often diagnosed at advanced stage and is therefore inoperable. The aim of this phase II trial was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a combination therapy with gemcitabine and irinotecan as the first-line chemotherapy in patients with previously untreated advanced BTC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Patients with pathologically confirmed advanced BTC received gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m(2) over 30 min) and irinotecan (100 mg/m(2) over 2 h) on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks.

RESULTS

Of 39 patients eligible for this trial, 6 had intrahepatic bile duct cancer, 2 had extrahepatic bile duct cancer and 31 had gallbladder cancer. A total of 193 cycles of chemotherapy were administered, with a median of 4 cycles per patient (range 1-18). The objective response rate was 20.5%, and the disease control rate was 66.7% in intention-to-treat analysis. The median progression-free survival was 4.3 months (95% CI 2.70-5.90), and overall survival was 7.6 months (95% CI 4.56-10.64). Grade 3 and 4 toxicities included anemia (20.5% of patients), thrombocytopenia (2.3%), neutropenia (10.3%), aspartate transaminase increase (10.3%), alanine transaminase increase (5.1%) and emesis (5.1%).

CONCLUSION

Combination therapy of gemcitabine and irinotecan had an efficacy comparable to historic control and can be a viable treatment option. It was well tolerated by patients with advanced BTC.