Cetuximab plus gemcitabine-oxaliplatin (GEMOX) in patients with refractory advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas

To assess the efficacy and safety of cetuximab in the palliative treatment of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (CCA) unresponsive to first-line gemcitabine-oxaliplatin (GEMOX) pretreatment.

Nine patients (mean age: 54 years) with recurrent or unresectable CCA (6 peripheral and 3 hilar CCA, histologically proven) resistant to GEMOX received cetuximab 400 mg/m2 on day 1 then 250 mg/m2 weekly combined with gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m2 on day 1 and oxaliplatin 85 mg/m2 on day 2, every 3 weeks. Immunohistochemical detection of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and erbB-2, as well as EGFR gene copy number were assessed. Tumor response was measured using RECIST.

A total of 43 cycles were given (3-8 per patient). After 6 months, CT scans revealed 1 complete response, 1 partial response, 1 stable disease and 6 patients with disease progression. Median time to tumor progression and overall survival were 4 and 7 months, respectively. All patients relapsed (mean follow-up: 17 months). In 6 patients, death was not related to treatment. Toxicity included grade 3 neutropenia (n = 1) and acne-like rash (n = 7). In 7 of the 9 patients, EGFR was highly expressed in all tumor cells without gene amplification. No expression of erbB-2 was noted.

Even in the absence of EGFR gene amplification, cetuximab + GEMOX is a well-tolerated palliative treatment in patients with advanced CCA. Adding cetuximab circumvents tumor resistance to GEMOX.