3.1 Analysis of clinical data in both arms
The current study enrolled 126 patients with advanced BTC receiving second-line treatment (Figure 1 and Table 1). Patients were divided into two groups, the simple chemotherapy group(SC group) and the combined treatment group (CT group), according to whether additional ICIs with or without target therapy were treated. The SC group had 69 patients, and the CT group included 57 patients. The ECOG score range of all patients was 0-2. No significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of differences in age(p=0.214), ECOG score(p=0.372), diagnosis(p=0.125), T stage(p=0.432), N stage(p=0.06), hepatic metastases status(p=0.245), multisite metastasis status(p=1), whether surgery(p=0.201), CEA(p=0.662) and CA199(p=0.615) before treatment.
3.2 Patient outcomes and survival analysis
All 126 patients received at least two treatments on a regular basis and had at least one efficacy assessment. In the CT group, 5.26% (3/57) of patients achieved PR, 49.1% (28/57) of patients achieved SD and 45.6% (26/57) of patients achieved PD. In the SC group, 1.45% (1/69) of patients achieved PR, 31.9% (22/69) of patients achieved SD and 52.2% (36/69) of patients achieved PD. All two arms showed that without patients were achieved CR. The ORR rate of the combined treatment group (5.26%) show better than that of the simple chemotherapy group (1.45%), but did not show significant difference between these two groups(p=0.157). The DCR of the combined group was 54.39%, which was better than the 33.33% of the simple chemotherapy group, no significant difference between these two groups was found (p=0.157)(Table 1). In the CT group, the most common immune drug was sintilimab (43.9%) and the most common target drug was lenvatinib (24.6%). The survival curve demonstrate that OS and PFS in the CT group (30.26±26.54; 4.68±4.93) was significantly higher than that in the SC group(17.14±7.19; 3.50±3.19)(p<0.001;p=0.0012)(Figure 2). In the subgroup analysis of the combined treatment group, although the OS of the ICIs with target therapy with chemotherapy group was prolonged versus the ICIs combined with chemotherapy group, it did not show statistical significance(64.12 months ±17.41 vs 43.28 months±7.43; p=0.85; Fig.3). Among the 32 patients in the ICIs combined with chemotherapy group, 1 (3.12%) patient had PR, 15 (46.9%) patients had SD, 16 (50%) patients had PD, the ORR was 3.13% and the DCR was 50%. Among the 25 patients in the ICIs combined with taergeted therapy with chemothetapy group, 2 (8%) patients had PR, 13 (52%) had SD, 10 (40%) patients had PD, the ORR was 8% and the DCR was 60%. Both groups of patients showed better ORR and DCR, but no statistically significant differences between the two subgroups were observed (p=0.157; p=0.157)(Table 4).
3.3 Univariate and multifactorial results of dinicopathological feature associated with OS
Univariate analysis of all 126 patients showed that TNM stage, T stage, histological grade, whether CA199 decreased, and therapeutic evaluation grade were related to OS (p<0.05, Table 2). Otherwise, multivariate COX regression analysis was conducted on variables with p<0.05. The results demonstrated that well histologic differentiation (p=0.009) and CA199 decreased (p=0.003) are independent prognostic factors for OS (Table 2).
3.4 Adverse events (AEs)
All 126 patients completed at least two cycles of the second-line treatment. Table 3 summarizes the AEs for enrolled patients. Overall, in all 126 patients, the most common non-hematological AEs were stomachache (22.22%), and the most common hematological AEs were hemoglobin count decreased (74.6%). Respectively, the most common non-hematological AEs in the simple chemotherapy group and the combined treatment group were stomachache (23.19% vs 21.05%), while the most common hematological AEs were serum albumin decreased (84.06% vs 61.41%). In the CT group, the highest incidence of grade 3-4 was hemoglobin count decreased (31.58%). On the contrast, the highest incidence of grade 3-4 was hemameba count decreased (31.88%). After infusion of human hemoglobin, patients with hemoglobin count decreased up to grade 3-4 returned to normal. And all patients with decreased in hemameba count returned normal after receiving infusion of human blood albumin. All grade 3-4 TRAEs that occurred were controlled after the patient received symptomatic medications, and did not affect subsequent treatment. Most of grade 1-2 TRAEs that happened returned normal after the patient was suspended from treatment or received symptomatic medications, and also did not affect subsequent treatment.