Dr. Umair Majeed, MBBS, MD

Radioembolization + Immunotherapy

for Bile Duct Cancer

This phase I trial tests the safety and side effects of yttrium-90 (Y90) radioembolization combined with immunotherapy drugs tremelimumab and durvalumab in treating patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (cancer of the bile ducts in the liver) that has spread to nearby tissue or lymph nodes (locally advanced) and cannot be removed by surgery (unresectable) who are not candidates for curative therapy or that has spread from where it first started (primary side) to multiple other places in the body (oligo-metastatic). Cholangiocarcinoma is a rare but aggressive cancer with limited curative options outside of surgery. Immunotherapy has shown modest benefit in hepatobiliary (liver, bile ducts, and gallbladder) cancers including cholangiocarcinoma. Radioembolization is a type of radiation therapy used to treat liver cancer that is advanced or has come back where tiny beads that hold the radioactive substance (radioisotope) yttrium Y90 are injected into or near the hepatic artery (the main blood vessel that carries blood to the liver). The beads collect in the tumor and the Y90 gives off radiation. This destroys the blood vessels that the tumor needs to grow and kills the tumor cells. A monoclonal antibody is a type of protein that can bind to certain targets in the body, such as molecules that cause the body to make an immune response (antigens). Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as durvalumab and tremelimumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Giving Y90 radioembolization in combination with tremelimumab and durvalumab immunotherapy may be safe and beneficial in treating patients with locally advanced, unresectable or oligo-metastatic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma who are not candidates for curative therapy.