Biliary Tract Cancers
Advanced or Metastatic HER2-Positive Biliary Tract Cancers
Biliary tract cancers are rare tumors that affect the bile ducts inside and outside the liver (cholangiocarcinoma) or the gall bladder (gall bladder cancer).
Each year, over 12,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma or gall bladder cancer,1,2 with the number of global diagnoses surpassing 210,000. The rate of biliary tract cancers is higher in South Asia and South America3. Certain biliary tract cancers are positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, or HER2, which means they make too much HER protein or contain too many copies of the HER2 gene4. Too much HER2 protein may cause cancer to grow more quickly and spread to other parts of the body5. Today’s standard treatments for biliary tract cancer are surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy6,7.
Zymeworks is currently conducting clinical trials to test novel targeted treatments for this disease.
- American Cancer Society: Key Statistics for Bile Duct Cancer
- American Cancer Society: Key Statistics for Gall Bladder Cancer
- Bridgewater JA et al. Biliary tract cancer: epidemiology, radiotherapy, and molecular profiling. Am Soc Clin Oncol (ASCO) Educ Book. 2016; 35: e194-203.
- Galdy S, Lamarca A, McNamara MG, Hubner RA, Cella CA, Fazio N, et al. HER2/HER3 pathway in biliary tract malignancies; systematic review and meta-analysis: a potential therapeutic target? Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2016;36(1):141–157.
- NIH National Cancer Institute: NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms
- NIH National Cancer Institute: Bile Duct Cancer (Cholangiocarcinoma) Treatment (PDQ)–Patient Version
- NIH National Cancer Institute: Gall Bladder Cancer Treatment (PDQ)–Patient Version
Clinical Trials
There are no trials currently running.
