The BILCAP Trial

AMMF gave a total of £14,000 to help support the large, long running BILCAP trial, the primary aim of which is to see if chemotherapy (capecitabine) given to those people who had undergone surgery for bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma) would do better than those who had surgery alone.

The study is looking at overall survival, the effect of the treatment on the percentage of people surviving for five years or more after their diagnosis, and on the length of time before the cancer returns.

If it can be shown that the drug treatment has a positive effect on any of these, it could lead to a change in the way cholangiocarcinoma patients are treated here in the UK and internationally.

All patients will be followed up for up to 5 years, which is why it is taking some time for the final results to be known.  (It is considered very important that the final results are known before the true effects of the drug treatment can be fully interpreted, and its impact can be understood.)

18.05.17 – The BILCAP trial has reported positively.  Capecitabine following surgery has been shown to improve survival by almost a quarter. To read a full report, click here

In this video Dr John Marshall of Georgetown University, and Professor John Primrose of the University of Southampton, discuss the practice-changing findings of the BILCAP study which investigated adjuvant capecitabine for biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma).