Biliary-tract cancer (BTC) is invasive carcinoma that originates from the epithelial lining of the gallbladder and bile ducts. BTC include cholangiocarcinoma (intrahepatic, perihilar, and distal biliary-tree tumor) and carcinoma arising from the gallbladder.~Surgical resection of the primary tumor is potentially curative for BTC, but less than a quarter of patients are eligible for resection at presentation. Systemic chemotherapy is the principal treatment method for patients with unresectable or metastatic BTC.~Gemcitabine is a promising agent, which has shown efficacy in biliary tract cancer. As a single-agent therapy, gemcitabine shows response rates of 8-36% in BTC[4]. In phase II trials with patients in advanced BTC, gemcitabine in combination with capecitabine or platinum analogues produced objective response rates of 26-50%.~The ABC-02 study reported a significant survival advantage for gemcitabine and cisplatin over gemcitabine alone in patients with advanced BTC (median overall survival 11.7 vs. 8.1 months; P < 0.001).~Oral anticancer drug S-1 consists of the 5-FU prodrug tegafur with two biochemical modulators, 5-chloro-2,4-dihydroxypyridine (CDHP) and potassium oxonate (Oxo). S-1 monotherapy is active against advanced BTC with objective response rates of 21-35%, and phase II trials of S-1 in combination with gemcitabine reported objective response rates of 20-36%. Differences between trials in the doses and administration schedules of gemcitabine and S-1 may be reflected in the ranges of efficacy, dose-intensity, and rates of toxicity observed.~Even though the efficacy of gemcitabine and S-1 combination is evident for patients with advanced BTC in previous phase II trials, there was no clinical study investigating the efficacy of gemcitabine and S-1 combination for patients with advanced BTC when this study was started. Therefore, we conducted a phase II study to evaluate gemcitabine and S-1 combination as first-line chemotherapy for patients with advanced BTC.
This study will conduct a phase II study of gemcitabine and S-1 as first-line chemotherapy in patient with advanced biliary tract cancer