Biliary tract cancer (BTC) is an uncommon and aggressive neoplasm, with most patients presenting in an advanced stage. Systemic chemotherapy is the limited treatment available but is unsatisfactory, while targeted therapy is still awaiting validation from clinical trials. Given the potential effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the treatment of BTC, this review aims to summarize the evidence-based benefits and predictive biomarkers for using inhibitors of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein-4 (CTLA-4) ligand, or programmed cell death protein-1 and its ligand (PD-1 and PD-L1) as monotherapy or combined with other anti-tumor therapies, while also pointing out certain pitfalls with the use of ICIs which need to be addressed.
Keywords: biliary tract cancer; clinical evidence; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immunotherapy; predictive biomarkers.
© 2021 Seesaha et al.