Treatment of Patients with Advanced Biliary Tract Cancer with Either Oxaliplatin, Gemcitabine, and Capecitabine or Cisplatin and Gemcitabine—A Randomized Phase II Trial
Alice Markussen, Lars Henrik Jensen, Laura V. Diness, Finn Ole Larsen
Abstract
This study is an investigator-initiated randomized phase II trial focusing on the treatment of advanced biliary tract cancer with either oxaliplatin 50 mg/m2 and gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 on day 1 in a two-week cycle with capecitabine 650 mg/m2 twice-daily continuously or cisplatin 25 mg/m2 and gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 on day 1 and day 8 in a three-week cycle. One-hundred patients were included. Forty-seven patients received oxaliplatin, gemcitabine, and capecitabine with a median progression-free survival (mPFS) of 5.7 months (95% CI 3.0–7.8) and a median overall survival (mOS) of 8.7 months (95% CI 6.5–11.2). Forty-nine patients received cisplatin and gemcitabine with a mPFS of 7.3 months (95% CI 6.0–8.7) and a mOS of 12.0 months (95% CI 8.3–16.7). This trial confirms a mOS of 12 months with cisplatin and gemcitabine, as found in earlier trials. With a superior tumor control rate of 79% vs. 60% (p = 0.045), a difference in the mPFS of 1.6 months (HR = 0.721, p = 0.1), and a difference in the mOS of 3.3 months (HR = 0.731, p = 0.1), cisplatin and gemcitabine should still be considered the standard first-line treatment for advanced biliary tract cancer.