U of A Cancer Center clinical trial advances research in treatment of biliary tract cancers

Thursday

By Mark Anthony Febbo, University of Arizona Cancer Center

Experimental, three-drug chemotherapy regimen didn’t improve survival rates for patients, but treatment might still prove helpful for a small subset of patients.

Rachna Shroff, MD, spoke at the U of A Cancer Center’s inaugural hepato-pancreato-biliary symposium in Sept. 2024. The center is recognized as an approved National Pancreas Foundation Center of Excellence by the National Pancreas Foundation.

Photo by Josh Elz, University of Arizona Cancer Center

The results of a clinical trial led by researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed that chemotherapy combining three different types of drugs did not improve overall survival for patients with advanced stage, inoperable biliary tract cancers.

“Biliary tract cancer is comparatively rare, but it’s aggressive and spreads fast. Our accrual of more than 450 patients in a little more than two years really shows there is a need for new ways to help people with biliary tract cancer,” said Rachna Shroff, MD, the associate director of clinical investigations at the U of A Cancer Center and leader of the clinical trial that included researchers from 17 other cancer centers.

“The two-drug regimen was the standard for over 10 years, and it’s not particularly effective,” said Shroff, a professor and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson. “While there are some newer precision treatments that are helpful to a small segment of the overall population, we need more and better options for all patients.”

The study was the first Phase III clinical trial conducted entirely in the United States for newly diagnosed, advanced biliary tract cancer patients. Aaron Scott, MD, co-leader of the U of A Cancer Center Clinical and Translational Oncology Program and an associate professor at the College of Medicine – Tucson, co-chaired the study and was a contributing author.