A single-arm, multicenter, open-label phase 2 trial of surufatinib in patients with unresectable or metastatic biliary tract cancer.

e16123 Background: Several clinical studies of vascular endothelial growth factor/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGF/VEGFR) therapy as second-line treatment for biliary tract cancer (BTC) has demonstrated moderate efficacy. In this study, surufatinib was evaluated as a second-line VEGFR therapy in BTC patients. Methods: This was a single-arm, multi-center, open-label phase 2 study conducted in China. The study enrolled eligible BTC patients who progressed after fist-line chemotherapy. Patients received surufatinib monotherapy as second-line treatment, at doses of 300 mg, once daily, in 28-day cycles. Tumor assessments were performed every 8 weeks ± 7 days according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1. Results: As of Nov. 30, 2018, a total of 39 BTC patients, including 29 (74.4%) with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, 5 (12.8%) with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and 5 (12.8%) with gallbladder cancer, were enrolled and treated with surufatinib. Sixteen-week progression-free survival (PFS) rate was 46.33% (95% confidence interval [CI], 24.38‒65.73), with median PFS of 3.7 months and median overall survival (OS) of 6.9 months. In addition, results from subgroup and post-hoc analyses suggested the trends of better clinical efficacy in patients with tumor locations inside the liver, or with lower baseline values of CA19-9 (≤ 1000 IU/mL) and CEA (≤ 3 ng/mL). The top three treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) with severity of Grade ≥ 3 included blood bilirubin increased (20.5%), hypertension (17.9%), and proteinuria (12.8%). Conclusions: When applied in the treatment of BTC patients, surufatinib monotherapy has offered moderate clinical efficacy and has demonstrated favorable tolerability and safety profiles. Moreover, surufatinib further boosting the antitumor effects of cancer immunotherapy is desirable. Clinical trial information: NCT02966821.