Anti-PD-1 therapy combined with chemotherapy in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer

BACKGROUND: Evidence for the efficacy of immunotherapy in biliary tract cancer (BTC) is limited and unsatisfactory. METHODS: Chinese BTC patients receiving a PD-1 inhibitor with chemotherapy, PD-1 inhibitor monotherapy or chemotherapy alone were retrospectively analyzed. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS). The key secondary outcomes were progression-free survival (PFS) and safety. Patients previously treated with any agent targeting T cell costimulation or immune checkpoints were excluded. RESULTS: The study included 77 patients (a PD-1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy, n = 38; PD-1 inhibitor monotherapy, n = 20; chemotherapy alone, n = 19). The median OS was 14.9 months with a PD-1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy, significantly longer than the 4.1 months with PD-1 inhibitor monotherapy (HR 0.37, 95% CI 0.17–0.80, P = 0.001) and the 6.0 months with chemotherapy alone (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.42–0.94, P = 0.011). The median PFS was 5.1 months with a PD-1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy, significantly longer than the 2.2 months with PD-1 inhibitor monotherapy (HR 0.59, 95% CI 0.31–1.10, P = 0.014) and the 2.4 months with chemotherapy alone (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.45–0.83, P = 0.003). Grade 3 or 4 treatment-related adverse events were similar between the anti-PD-1 combination group and the chemotherapy alone group (34.2% and 36.8%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Anti-PD-1 therapy plus chemotherapy is an effective and tolerable approach for advanced BTC. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00262-019-02386-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.