Successful Treatment of Advanced Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma With a High Tumor Mutational Burden and PD-L1 Expression by PD-1 Blockade Combined With Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors: A Case Report
Ze Zhang, Wen‐Wen Zhang, Hongguang Wang, Bingyang Hu, Zhanbo Wang, Shichun Lu
Abstract
Advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is not suitable for surgical treatment. Guided by the concept of precision medicine, preoperative systematic treatment may reshape the clinical outcomes of advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients. We describe the case of a 38-year-old female who has been diagnosed with stage IV intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with a high tumor mutational burden and positively programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression. The patient was treated with programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitors combined with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). After 7 cycles of combination therapy, she underwent radical resection and no tumor cells were found in the postoperative histopathological examination. In addition, the patient's survival time had reached 25 months, as of August 2021. To date, this is the first case of successful radical resection after combined immunotherapy with TKIs for advanced PD-L1-positive intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with a high tumor mutational burden (TMB). The case provides a new approach to the treatment of advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.