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Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma starts in the small bile ducts inside the liver and usually appears as a liver mass rather than causing jaundice. It is the biliary cancer with the most drug targets: FGFR2 fusions treated with pemigatinib or futibatinib, IDH1 mutations with ivosidenib, and for everyone chemotherapy with the immunotherapy durvalumab or pembrolizumab. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Contrast MRI and CT, biopsy, and comprehensive genomic profiling including RNA-based fusion detection for every patient.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Hepatectomy with lymph node dissection followed by six months of adjuvant capecitabine (BILCAP).
Radioembolisation, stereotactic radiotherapy or hepatic artery infusion in specialised centres, usually with systemic therapy; liver transplantation in trials.
Gemcitabine and cisplatin with durvalumab (TOPAZ-1) or pembrolizumab (KEYNOTE-966).
Pemigatinib (FIGHT-202) or futibatinib (FOENIX-CCA2); management of hyperphosphataemia and eye toxicity.
Ivosidenib (ClarIDHy).
FOLFOX (ABC-06); trials.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Trials open now for this cancer in OnCo, largest phase first. Joining a trial is a decision like any other: ask what the comparison arm is, whether a placebo is used, and what happens if you leave. The cancer page searches ClinicalTrials.gov live for more.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.