Loading
Between one in eleven and one in five gallbladder cancers is HER2-positive and two HER2 drugs are now approved, but testing still happens only when someone asks. Making it automatic on every advanced biliary diagnosis, on resection tissue where it exists, would find the patients the trials were built for.
HER2 overexpression is about 20 percent in extrahepatic biliary cancers in the 2017 meta-analysis and 9.4 percent of gallbladder cancers by the HERIZON-BTC-01 definition in a 2026 resected series, which also found frequent heterogeneity involving under half of tumour cells, so small biopsies can miss it. Zanidatamab produced a 41.3 percent response rate in HER2-positive disease and trastuzumab deruxtecan has a tumour-agnostic HER2 3+ indication. Testing uptake in biliary cancer is not routinely audited. Reflex immunohistochemistry with in situ hybridisation for 2+ cases, ordered by pathology at diagnosis, is the model used for gastric and breast cancer.
A direct check of the HERIZON-BTC-01 testing algorithm in routine pathology: IHC 3+ can stand alone, 2+ needs ISH, and the low-level amplification in weakly stained tumours is the group where HER2 drugs are least likely to help.
One cancer page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
The prevalence estimate that made HER2 the first gallbladder-relevant target; it argues for testing every advanced gallbladder cancer, since one in five may qualify for zanidatamab or trastuzumab deruxtecan.
Shares Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials, HER2, Gallbladder cancer and the tag gallbladder-evidence.
Shares HER2/HER3 pathway in biliary tract malignancies; systematic review and meta-analysis: a potential therapeutic target?, Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials, Gallbladder cancer and the tag gallbladder-evidence.
Shares Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (perihilar and distal), Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials, Gallbladder cancer and the tag gallbladder-evidence.
Shares Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials, Gallbladder cancer and the tag gallbladder-evidence.
Shares Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials, HER2, Gallbladder cancer and the tag gallbladder-evidence.
Shares Knowledge reaches practice too slowly, Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials, Gallbladder cancer and the tag gallbladder-evidence.
Shares Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials, Gallbladder cancer and the tag gallbladder-evidence.
Shares Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials, Gallbladder cancer and the tag gallbladder-evidence.