Prognostic factors in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer treated with first-line gemcitabine plus cisplatin: retrospective analysis of 740 patients

Purpose Biliary tract cancer (BTC) is a heterogeneous group of diseases comprising intrahepatic and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer. Although gemcitabine plus cisplatin (GEMCIS) was established as the standard first-line chemotherapy based on the ABC-02 trial, more data are needed to define the clinical course of BTC and its prognostic factors with the standard GEMCIS treatment. Methods Between April 2010 and June 2016, 740 patients with histologically documented cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer were treated with first-line GEMCIS in Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. Results In 389 patients with measurable disease (53%), the objective response rate was 13% ( n = 50) and there was no significant difference between primary tumor sites ( p = 0.45). With a median follow-up duration of 27.3 months (95% CI 24.2–30.5), the median PFS and OS were 5.2 months (95% CI 4.7–5.6) and 10.4 months (95% CI 9.6–11.2), respectively. In multivariate analysis, male gender (female versus male, hazard ratio [HR] 0.83), baseline CA 19-9 level (elevated versus normal, HR 1.31), initially metastatic disease (versus locally advanced disease, HR 1.92), poor performance status (2 versus 0–1, HR 1.45), and measurable disease by RECIST criteria (versus non-measurable, HR 1.40) were significantly associated with a poorer OS (all p