Opportunities and challenges for the treatment of malignant hepatobiliary tumors in the new era of immunotherapy

Malignant hepatobiliary tumors mainly include hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and biliary tract cancer (BTC) and are common malignancies in China that seriously threaten the life and health of the Chinese people. Malignant hepatobiliary tumors often have an insidious onset, and most patients have lost the opportunity for surgery due to the advanced stage at initial diagnosis. The treatment of advanced HCC mainly depends on systemic therapy such as sorafenib, lenvatinib, donafenib, regorafenib, apatinib, and systemic chemotherapy, but such treatment often has a limited effect. The treatment of advanced BTC mainly relies on systemic chemotherapy, which often has an unsatisfactory effect. The advent of the era of immunotherapy brings new hope to the treatment of advanced malignant hepatobiliary tumors. Atezolizumab combined with bevacizumab and sintilimab combined with a bevacizumab biosimilar IBI305 have been approved as the first-line treatment of advanced HCC. The treatment regimens, such as Chemotherapy-based immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) or ICI combined with targeted drugs, have made great progress in the treatment of advanced BTC, and although these regimens can significantly improve the overall survival of patients, they often bring obvious and even life-threatening adverse reactions, which should be taken seriously by clinicians. In addition, further studies are needed to investigate the value of ICI-based combination therapy in the perioperative treatment of malignant hepatobiliary tumors.