John L. Marshall, MD, Georgetown University

Experts who treat patients with GI cancers, such as cholangiocarcinoma, emphasize the need for more standardized approaches to molecular testing. 

A panel of GI oncologists comment on the transition to targeted therapy and immunotherapy as treatments for advanced cholangiocarcinoma, as well as highlight predictive and prognostic markers that can help guide treatment decisions with novel therapies.

Treatment recommendations, including supportive care options and the role of liver-directed therapy for patients with an unresectable, advanced bile duct cancer.

An overview of potential options, as well as trials, further exploring neoadjuvant approaches for the management of patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma.

Insight regarding best timing to initiate an appropriate adjuvant therapy in patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma, and the role of ctDNA analysis in the postsurgical setting.

Current treatment approaches for advanced cholangiocarcinoma, despite current gaps that can be considered in the adjuvant setting, as highlighted by GI oncologists.

Scenarios for which liver transplantation may be appropriate in advanced cholangiocarcinoma.

Panelists discuss types of scans and other testing results that can be used to help identify patients with an advanced bile duct cancer who are eligible for surgical resection.

GI oncologists react to a prognosis for patients with newly diagnosed advanced cholangiocarcinoma and discuss how they counsel patients on goals of care and treatment expectations.

Best practices for working with other colleagues to ensure adequate tissue collection occurs when conducting a biopsy on a patient suspected of having cholangiocarcinoma, as well as considerations for next-generation sequencing.

Types of assessments that are used to help appropriately work up a patient suspected of having a bile duct cancer.

Factors that may contribute to the rise in the number of cholangiocarcinoma cases being reported, as suggested by GI oncologists.

GI oncologists explain the complicated nature of cholangiocarcinoma as it relates to the disease’s underlying pathogenesis.

Dr Sameek Roychowdhury, of the James Cancer Hospital Solove Research Institute, describes what cholangiocarcinoma is, specifically highlighting how the disease often presents in patients.