Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

On September 2, 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration approved durvalumab in combination with gemcitabine/cisplatin for advanced biliary tract cancers (BTCs) on the basis of the TOPAZ-1 study.

A letter from the Editor-in-Chief, Milind M. Javle, MD.

The 2022 ASCO GI Cancers Symposium clearly highlighted the rapid trajectory of clinical research in biliary tract cancers. One of the most eagerly anticipated studies, TOPAZ-1, was presented by Do-Youn Oh, MD, PhD, from Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea. This phase 3 clinical trial enrolled 685 patients and investigated the addition of the PD-L1–directed agent durvalu­mab to gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy backbone versus these chemotherapies alone. The results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in overall survival (OS), overall response rate (ORR), and progression-free survival (PFS), without dose-limiting toxicities.

The Third CCA Summit was held on October 21-22, 2021 in New Orleans. For the majority of the cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) community, this was their first “live” meeting since the pandemic.

This issue of CCA News features yet another exciting FDA approval for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), ivosidenib, which was recently approved for CCA with IDH1 mutation. This is the third drug approved for CCA in the past 2 years, highlighting the critical role of molecular profiling in this cancer. Up to 20% of patients with intrahepatic CCA have IDH1 mutation, and the ClarIDHy phase 3 study demonstrated improvement in progression-free survival with ivosidenib versus placebo for chemorefractory disease. The FDA also approved the Oncomine Dx Target Test for IDH1 mutations.

Dear Colleagues, It gives me great pleasure to introduce the March issue of CCA News. Once again, we have several recent developments in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) clinical research, and these have been reviewed by leaders in the field.

In this last issue for the year, we are highlighting the proceedings of the Second Annual Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) Summit, which was conducted on October 22-23, 2020. This summit attracted a wide, multidisciplinary audience and was very interactive, despite being a virtual event. An important focus for this meeting was the emergence of molecular targets in CCA and early successes seen with precision medicine in this disease. Many of the key presentations from the summit are included in the current issue and are highlighted below.

While the COVID-19 pandemic rages throughout the world, patients, providers, and healthcare advocates are learning to survive in an alternative (virtual) world that is likely to change the face of medicine forever. Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a complex disease that requires multidisciplinary care. Virtual clinic visits and online tumor boards and symposia represent just a few of the countless innovations introduced over the past year.

It is my great pleasure to launch the inaugural issue of CCA News, an important new publication highlighting the latest research and development in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). I am proud that we now have a focused publication on biliary tract cancers and am humbled to serve as the first editor-in-chief.