CHA Bundang Hospital said it has become the first Asian medical institution to confirm the efficacy of a three-drug combination therapy -- gemcitabine, cisplatin, and Abraxane – in treating advanced biliary tract cancer.
According to the hospital, the five-year survival rate for biliary tract cancer, reported by the Central Cancer Registry in 2020, was only 28.8 percent.
While gemcitabine and cisplatin are standard treatments for advanced biliary tract cancer, even with such treatment, the average life expectancy is less than one year, so there was a high unmet need for the development of a new treatment.
To resolve the problem, a research team -- led by Professors Jeon Hong-jae, Chun Jae-kyung, Kang Bu-deul, Choi Sung-hoon, and Kwon Chang-il of the Cancer Center at the hospital -- has applied a three-drug combination therapy using gemcitabine, cisplatin, and Abraxane to 178 patients with advanced biliary tract cancer.
The response rate of patients who started the three-drug combination treatment was 47.9 percent, the progression-free survival period was 9.4 months, and the overall survival period was at least 15 months.
“This is a significant improvement compared to the treatment effect of the existing gemcitabine and cisplatin two-drug combination therapy, which had a patient response rate of 25 percent, a progression-free survival period of eight months, and an overall survival period of 11.7 months,” the team said.
Also, the team could conduct surgeries on 20 patients with advanced biliary tract cancer who were unable to undergo surgery at the time of diagnosis after treating them with the three-drug combination therapy.
In advanced biliary tract cancer, there is no treatment other than continuing chemotherapy as the chance of the size of cancer reducing even after chemotherapy is very rare, the hospital said.
However, the team confirmed that there were patients who could undergo surgery because the size of the cancer was smaller than at the time of initial diagnosis, thanks to the improvement of the treatment response through the three-drug combination therapy, it added.
“This is a very meaningful study that not only improved the treatment effect of advanced biliary tract cancer but also confirmed the possibility of a full recovery through surgery for patients who were unable to operate through a three-drug combination treatment,” Professor Jeon said.
The team hopes that the treatment method will lead to new hope for patients with biliary tract cancer through a multidisciplinary approach such as customized treatment for biliary cancer patients, Jeon added.
The results of the research were published in the latest issue of the Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology.