# Molecular profiling of biliary cancers reveals distinct molecular alterations and potential therapeutic targets

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-weinberg-biliary-profiling-jgo-2019/  
OnCo record `paper-weinberg-biliary-profiling-jgo-2019` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Profiling 1,502 biliary cancers on one commercial platform, gallbladder tumours stood out for HER2 overexpression and amplification and for defects in homologous recombination repair, and, with intrahepatic tumours, for more immunotherapy markers than extrahepatic disease.

## Summary

1,502 biliary tract cancers were profiled using next-generation sequencing, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridisation and RNA sequencing to compare intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder carcinoma, which are frequently grouped together in trials despite differences in tumour biology.

Intrahepatic tumours had higher rates of IDH1, BAP1 and PBRM1 mutations and FGFR2 fusions; extrahepatic tumours higher rates of KRAS, CDKN2A and BRCA1 mutations; and gallbladder carcinomas higher rates of homologous recombination repair deficiency and HER2 overexpression and amplification. Intrahepatic and gallbladder tumours had higher rates of potential positive predictive biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibition (PD-L1 expression, high microsatellite instability and high tumour mutational burden) than extrahepatic tumours.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Journal: Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology
- Year: 2019
- DOI: 10.21037/jgo.2018.08.18
- Authors: Weinberg BA, Xiu J, Lindberg MR, et al.
- Findings: Gallbladder carcinoma had the highest rates of HER2 overexpression and amplification and of homologous recombination repair deficiency among the three biliary sites.; Intrahepatic and gallbladder tumours carried more PD-L1 expression, MSI-high and TMB-high than extrahepatic tumours.; Intrahepatic tumours: IDH1, BAP1, PBRM1 and FGFR2 fusions; extrahepatic: KRAS, CDKN2A, BRCA1.
- What it means: The largest single-platform comparison; the abstract gives directions rather than percentages, so the figures on OnCo come from the other cohorts, but it supports testing gallbladder cancer for HER2, repair defects and immunotherapy markers.
- Caveats: Abstract reports relative rates, not frequencies; the full paper holds the numbers.; Referral cohort profiled by Caris Life Sciences.

## Sources

- Weinberg et al., J Gastrointest Oncol 2019: molecular profiling of 1,502 biliary cancers: https://doi.org/10.21037/jgo.2018.08.18
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31392046/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma)](https://onco.cc/cancers/cholangiocarcinoma/), [Gallbladder cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/gallbladder/)
- targets: [BRCA1 / BRCA2 (HRD)](https://onco.cc/targets/brca/), [HER2](https://onco.cc/targets/her2/), [Mismatch repair proteins (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2)](https://onco.cc/targets/mmr/), [PD-L1](https://onco.cc/targets/pdl1/)
- companies: [Caris Life Sciences](https://onco.cc/companies/caris/)
- terms: [Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)](https://onco.cc/terms/hrd/), [Microsatellite instability (MSI-H) / mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR)](https://onco.cc/terms/msi/), [Tumour mutational burden (TMB)](https://onco.cc/terms/tmb/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/paper-weinberg-biliary-profiling-jgo-2019.json