Molecularly Targeted Therapy for Gallbladder Cancer

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) continues to be the most common subtype of biliary tract cancer (BTC) in the world. Due to GBC’s unique anatomical location and nonspecific symptomatology, most patients are diagnosed at advanced stages with limited options. Since the vast majority of patients with high-grade malignant tumors have contraindications to surgical resection, only 25% of these patients have the opportunity for curative surgery. These facts have pushed the field to better understand the molecular pathogenesis of this disease and develop several non-surgical treatment options. In this chapter, we outline some of those molecular targets and explain how these targeted therapies have guided the development of new medical therapies. In this chapter, we will evaluate and describe the mechanisms of ERBB, EGFR, VEGF, DNA damage pathway, PD-1/PD-L1, RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK, PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, FGFR2 fusions gene, and IDH1 mutations to understand each mechanism’s role in the treatment of GBC.