Pemetrexed in Combination With Erlotinib as a Salvage Treatment in Patients With Metastatic Biliary Tract Cancer (BTC) Who Failed Gemcitabine Containing Chemotherapy: A Phase II Single Arm Prospective Study

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

Biliary tract carcinoma (BTC) is rare in the Europe and the United States, but not uncommon in Asia and Latin America. The tumor arises from the ductular epithelium of the biliary tree within the liver (intrahepatic), the extrahepatic ducts (extrahepatic), or the gallbladder. Intrahepatic cancer is ...

Biliary tract carcinoma (BTC) is rare in the Europe and the United States, but not uncommon in Asia and Latin America. The tumor arises from the ductular epithelium of the biliary tree within the liver (intrahepatic), the extrahepatic ducts (extrahepatic), or the gallbladder. Intrahepatic cancer is steadily increasing in the Western world. BTCs carry a poor prognosis with 1-year survival rate of 25%. Although surgery remains the only curative treatment for BTC, most patients present with advanced disease and die within a few months of diagnosis. While a combination of gemcitabine and platinum agents seems to be a conclusive treatment option as first-line treatment until now, the role or the optimal regimen for second-line treatment has not been established. Pemetrexed, a multitarget antifolate which inhibits thymidylate synthase, dihydrofolate reductase and glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase, was approved for the treatment of lung cancer and mesothelioma. In addition to its therapeutic efficacy, pemetrexed has tolerable safety profile and is considered as important therapeutic option for patients of poor performance statue or older age. Pemetrexed was studied in combination with gemcitabine in BTC patients and needs further research in BTC patients. Erlotinib is EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor. In BTC and pancreatic cancer, erlotinib showed prolonged survival in combination with chemotherapy. Moreover, the addition of erlotinib to gemcitabine and oxaliplatin showed antitumour activity in our previous phase III trial. And combination of pemetrexed and erlotinib showed tolerable safety profile in lung cancer trial. So we plan this study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pemetrexed in combination with erlotinib as a second line treatment in biliary tract cancer

Tracking Information