Combination Treatment Improves Progression-free Survival in Biliary Tract Cancer

An immunotherapy in combination with an MEK inhibitor improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with immunotherapy alone in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer whose disease progressed on previous treatments, according to results from a phase 2 study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.

In the study, 77 patients with advanced biliary tract cancer were randomly assigned to receive atezolizumab plus cobimetinib or atezolizumab alone. Patients receiving the combination treatment had a median PFS of 3.65 months compared with 1.87 months for those treated with atezolizumab monotherapy (P = 0.0268).

Partial response was observed in 1 patient in each group. Stable disease was reported in 13 patients in the combination group and 10 patients in the monotherapy group.

Grade 3/4 adverse events (AEs) were similar in both groups.

Reference

Yarchoan M, Cope L, Anders RA, et al. A multicenter randomized phase 2 trial of atezolizumab as monotherapy or in combination with cobimetinib in biliary tract cancers: A NCI Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) study. AACR 2020; Abstract CT043.