Dr. Roychowdhury on Future Research Directions With FGFR Inhibitors in Cholangiocarcinoma

Sameek Roychowdhury, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, assistant professor, department of Internal Medicine, department of Pharmacology, The Ohio State University, discusses future research directions with FGFR inhibitors in patients with cholangiocarcinoma.

In a single-arm, phase 2 study (NCT02150967), investigators evaluated infigratinib (Truseltiq) in previously treated patients with advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma. Future research efforts in this area should focus on getting patients who have received a standard-of-care FGFR inhibitor, such as infigratinib or pemigatinib (Pemazyre), enrolled on clinical trials that are examining second-generation FGFR inhibitors, according to Roychowdhury. Having more patients enrolled to these studies will help to advance the potential development of new therapeutic options for a population with high rates of disease progression, Roychowdhury explains.

The number of patients that can be enrolled in these trials is small because cholangiocarcinoma is a rare malignancy, Roychowdhury adds. As such, collaboration will be necessary to get patients enrolled to these trials and to improve upon the standard of care in this population, Roychowdhury concludes.