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7 treatment settings, 4 with more than one named option. Each section lays out the options the standard of care names, what each is for, the trials behind them with their recorded results, the side effects and cautions on record, and questions to ask. Built from the cancer page's standard-of-care rows; nothing here is advice for your case.
Answer a few questions from a report and read the guideline statement that applies, quoted word for word with its source. Educational aids, not advice.
MRI with cholangiography and CT for staging, endoscopic brushing or biopsy, and biliary drainage by stent or percutaneous route with antibiotics for cholangitis.
MRI uses a strong magnet and radio waves, with no ionising radiation, to picture soft tissue in finer contrast than CT, so it is the standard scan for brain tumours, prostate, rectal cancer staging, liver lesions and breast screening in high-risk women. It is slow, expensive and blurred by movement.
A CT scan is a fast 3D X-ray that shows the size and shape of tumours and whether they have spread.
A small tube placed by endoscope or through the skin reopens a blocked bile duct, relieving jaundice so chemotherapy can be given.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Bile duct resection with hemihepatectomy and caudate lobectomy after portal vein embolisation and drainage where needed, then six months of capecitabine (BILCAP).
Capecitabine (Xeloda) is a tablet form of the chemotherapy fluorouracil. It is a backbone of treatment for bowel cancer and a standard option in advanced breast cancer.
OS 51.1 vs 36.4 months; ITT HR 0.81 (p=0.097), per-protocol HR 0.75.
No side-effect rates or interaction flags are recorded for these options yet. The side-effect lookup and interaction checker cover the products that have them.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple) with lymphadenectomy, then adjuvant capecitabine.
Capecitabine (Xeloda) is a tablet form of the chemotherapy fluorouracil. It is a backbone of treatment for bowel cancer and a standard option in advanced breast cancer.
OS 51.1 vs 36.4 months; ITT HR 0.81 (p=0.097), per-protocol HR 0.75.
No side-effect rates or interaction flags are recorded for these options yet. The side-effect lookup and interaction checker cover the products that have them.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by liver transplantation under the Mayo protocol in specialist centres.
Replacing the whole diseased liver cures both the cancer and the cirrhosis underneath it, for patients whose tumours are small enough.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Gemcitabine and cisplatin with durvalumab (TOPAZ-1) or pembrolizumab (KEYNOTE-966).
Gemcitabine plus cisplatin has been the chemotherapy backbone for bile duct cancer since 2010 and is now given with immunotherapy.
A PD-L1 blocker that became standard after chemoradiation for stage III lung cancer, and now in bladder, biliary, and gastric cancers.
Pembrolizumab is a PD-1 blocking antibody approved in more than 40 settings, from melanoma and lung cancer to the first tumour-agnostic approval for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours in 2017, and before and after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer. A subcutaneous form arrived in 2025, and it is the backbone partner for ADCs and personalised neoantigen vaccines.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
OS 12.7 vs 10.9 months, HR 0.83.
OS 11.7 vs 8.1 months, HR 0.64.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Pneumonitis (any cause, PACIFIC) · vs 12.8% placebo; 1.1% fatal | 18.3% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothyroidism (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 8% | - |
| Pneumonitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 3.4% | - |
| Colitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 1.7% | - |
| Hepatitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 0.7% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Zanidatamab (HERIZON-BTC-01) or trastuzumab deruxtecan; zanidatamab first line in HERIZON-BTC-302.
Zanidatamab (Ziihera) is an antibody that grabs HER2 at two different spots, approved for HER2+ bile duct cancer.
Trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) is the most successful ADC ever. It redefined HER2 by working in tumours with only tiny amounts of the protein, and in 2026 moved into early-stage breast cancer.
No headline result recorded yet.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · DESTINY-Breast03/04; all-grade rates ≥20% per label | - | 18% |
| Nausea · DESTINY-Breast03/04; all-grade rates ≥20% per label | - | 7% |
| Anaemia · DESTINY-Breast03/04; all-grade rates ≥20% per label | - | 7% |
| Fatigue · DESTINY-Breast03/04; all-grade rates ≥20% per label | - | 6% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
FOLFOX (ABC-06); pembrolizumab for microsatellite-unstable tumours, dabrafenib-trametinib for BRAF V600E.
FOLFOX is the workhorse chemotherapy combination for bowel cancer, used after surgery to cure and in advanced disease as the backbone that targeted drugs are added to.
Pembrolizumab is a PD-1 blocking antibody approved in more than 40 settings, from melanoma and lung cancer to the first tumour-agnostic approval for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours in 2017, and before and after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer. A subcutaneous form arrived in 2025, and it is the backbone partner for ADCs and personalised neoantigen vaccines.
Dabrafenib plus trametinib is the BRAF-plus-MEK pill combination, approved for BRAF V600E lung cancer and, since 2022, for any solid tumour with that mutation.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothyroidism (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 8% | - |
| Pneumonitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 3.4% | - |
| Colitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 1.7% | - |
| Hepatitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 0.7% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.