Practical aspects of modern antineoplastic therapy in locally advanced and metastatic biliary tract cancer

Although gallbladder and biliary tract cancer is a rather rare group of diseases, it is among the pressing issues of modern oncology. Adequate surgery is the only curative method that can give a chance for recovery for a small proportion of patients at early stages of the disease. The scope of opportunities of drug therapy in biliary tract cancer is limited by the low effectiveness of the few currently available cytostatics. The addition of chemotherapy has little effect on the long-term outcome of surgery and other local interventions. Apparently, future treatments for these patients should be developed based on studies of targeted therapy and its combination with standard cytotoxic therapy, as well as possible targeting of anticancer immune response, which necessitates a search for immunotherapy efficacy predictors. The objective of this article is to consider the practical potential of drug therapy for biliary tract cancer and to review the studies that looked into molecular genetic targets and effective combinations of existing drugs, analyzing possible practical applications of the study results.