A Phase 1/2 interventional study of Tivozanib in Cholangiocarcinoma, Bile Duct Neoplasm and Biliary Tract Malignancy, sponsored by National Cancer Institute (NCI). Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-16.
Sponsored by National Cancer Institute (NCI) · Phase 1/2, Interventional, and Treatment
Background:
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an aggressive cancer of the bile ducts. People with CCA have few treatment options and poor survival. Researchers want to see if a new drug can stop or slow CCA growth.
Objective:
To find the safest and most effective dose of tivozanib to treat CCA and learn its overall response rate.
Eligibility:
Adults ages 18 and older with CCA not removable with surgery and have been treated with at least one type of chemotherapy.
Design:
Participants will be screened with the following:
Some screening tests may be repeated during the study.
Participants will be asked to enroll in protocol #13C0176. This will allow any remaining tumor or blood samples to be used in future research.
Participants will take tivozanib by mouth, once a day for 21 days per cycle or every other day per cycle. Each cycle is 28 days. They can take the drug until they have bad side effects, their CCA gets worse, or if they become pregnant. They will record their blood pressure twice daily at home. They will also keep a medication diary of each dose of tivozanib they take and any side effects.
Participants will have study visits before starting each new cycle and every 8 weeks. They will also have a follow-up visit 30 days after treatment ends at NIH, or if they are unable to come to NIH by phone, videocall, or other NIH-approved platform. Then they will be contacted 6 and 12 months later, and then once a year.
Background:
Biliary Tract Cancers (BTC) (cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and gallbladder cancer (GBC)) are aggressive malignancies that remain a clinical challenge with limited treatment options and poor survival. Combination chemotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin is the most validated first-line treatment, but the response rate approaches only 22% and median progression free survival is 8 months.
Cytoplasmic accumulation of the nuclear export protein exportin 7, XPO7, portends poor outcomes for patients with biliary tract cancer. Using pre-clinical models, we established XPO7 as an oncogenic driver in CCA cells and determined that this biology is driven by the interaction between XPO7 and a hitherto incompletely studied kinase, Ste-20 like kinase (SLK).
XPO7 binds to and promotes cytoplasmic localization and stabilization of SLK, which in turn activates oncogenic signaling. Targeting SLK expression via short hairpin RNA abrogates tumor formation in 3D culture and mice models, establishing SLK as a novel
target in biliary tract cancer.
The pan-vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) inhibitor tivozanib demonstrated activity against SLK in our in vitro screen, which we later confirmed with x-ray crystallography. Tivozanib abrogated growth of CCA tumorspheres, resulting in substantial tumor regression using murine xenograft models and patient-derived xenografts. Additionally, we evaluated tivozanib in our ex vivo tumor platform using a liver metastasis from a patient with XPO7-expressing biliary tract cancer and documented tumor cell apoptosis.
As reliable, molecular-targeted regimens either for first- or second-line therapy for the majority of patients with biliary tract cancer have remained elusive, these results support evaluation of tivozanib as a treatment option for patients with biliary tract cancer.
Objectives:
Determine the overall response rate (RECIST) of tivozanib in participants with biliary tract cancer (BTC) who were previously treated with first-line therapy.
Eligibility:
Participants with histologically or cytologically confirmed biliary tract cancer (BTC) not amenable to resection
Previous treatment with 1st line chemotherapy
Age >= 18 years of age
ECOG performance status of \<=2
Preserved hepatic function
Adequate organ and marrow function
Design:
Open-label, single-center, non-randomized Phase II study
Trial is a Simon minimax two-stage Phase II trial design to determine efficacy.
Treatment is in cycles of 28 days, 3 weeks on, 1 week off (with possible dose de-escalation if needed). Treatment evaluations for efficacy will be every 2 months (8 weeks).
Up to 21 participants may receive study intervention on this protocol
824 studies on the registry are indexed under Cholangiocarcinoma; 287 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 31 is below the median of 50 across 623 interventional studies indexed under Cholangiocarcinoma.
Browse Cholangiocarcinoma studies →National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the lead sponsor of 3,556 studies on the registry; 336 are open to participants now.
Of its 411 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 373 (91%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Participants with or cytologically confirmed biliary tract cancer (BTC) (cholangiocarcinoma or gallbladder cancer). may be used but if archival tissue is not available or is not adequate, tissue biopsy will be required.
Age >=18 years.
NOTE: Because no dosing or adverse event data are currently available on the use of tivozanib in participants \< 18 years of age, children are excluded from this study, but may be eligible for future pediatric trials.
Adequate organ and marrow function as defined below:
Negative serum or urine pregnancy test at screening for individuals of (IOCBP), excepting identified false-positive pregnancy test results as permitted in the note below.
NOTE: IOCBP is defined as any individual who has experienced menarche and who has not undergone successful surgical sterilization or who is not . IOCBP must have a negative pregnancy test (HCG blood or urine) during screening.
NOTE: Advanced biliary tract disease may secrete hormones that produce false-positive pregnancy test results. A false-positive result will be explicitly determined in this protocol at screening via a series of serial blood tests (i.e., serum HCG measurements) over a 5-day period (i.e., a minimum of a blood test on the first and fifth day of the 5-day period), in which a false-positive result not compatible with pregnancy will be defined as results indicating a consecutive, clinically low, constant level (i.e., no more than a 15% rate of increase) of HCG over the testing period. An ultrasound may be performed for clarification purposes as necessary.
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, ongoing or active infection requiring systemic therapy (see exceptions below), or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.
“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.
The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.
“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Biopsy and archival tissue
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Line of therapy
A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.
“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
RECIST
The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.
“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECOG performance status
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Postmenopausal
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis C tests
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Tivozanib, P.O. daily at 0.89 mg (given on Days 1-21 of every 28-day cycle) with intra-patient escalation to 1.34 mg daily (given on Days 1-21 of every 28-day cycle) and possible dose de-escalation to 0.89 mg every other day (without interruption for a 28-day cycle) if needed to determine RP2D
Drug: Tivozanib
Tivozanib at the RP2D established in Phase I
Drug: Tivozanib
Oral tivozanib taken daily for Days 1-21 continuously (of each 28-day cycle) followed with 7 days off medication (except for patients in DL-1, with dosing every other day of the 28-day cycle). Phase I: The starting dose (DL1) is 0.89 mg taken once a day continuously for Days 1-21 with 1 week off medication (except for those patients assigned to DL-1, where tivozanib should be taken every other day, around 48 hours apart in 28-day cycle). Patients may escalate to 1.34 mg taken once a day (DL2) continuously for Days 1-21 with 1 week off medication for their second cycle if there are no dose-limiting toxicities. Phase II: Tivozanib dose level will be at the recommended Phase II dose (RP2D) established in Phase I.
Phase II: Determine the overall response rate by RECIST of tivozanib in patients with cholangiocarcinoma who were previously treated with first-line therapy.
Patients will be re-evaluated for response every 8 weeks after start of treatment. The Phase II clinical response rate (CR+PR) will be determined and reported along with a 95% confidence interval.
Time frame: baseline, every 8 weeks post-treatment
Phase I: Determine safety and establish the recommended Phase II dose (RP2D) of tivozanib in patients with cholangiocarcinoma who were previously treated with first-line chemotherapy.
List of adverse event frequency and grade. Patient DLTs will be counted and reported to determine the safety and tolerability of tivozanib and to establish the recommended Phase II dose (RP2D) using a standard 3+3 design.
Time frame: Every 8 weeks (Phase I only)
Evaluate overall survival (OS) in patients with cholangiocarcinoma treated with tivozanib
CT or MRI will be used for response criteria. PFS and OS will be determined using Kaplan-Meier estimates.
Time frame: baseline, every 8 weeks post-treatment
Evaluate disease control response (DCR- complete response [CR] plus partial response [PR] plus stable disease [SD]) in patients with cholangiocarcinoma treated with tivozanib
CT or MRI will be used for response criteria. DCR (CR plus PR plus SD) will be determined and reported along with 95% confidence intervals. Wherever possible, duration of DCR will be reported.
Time frame: baseline, every 8 weeks post-treatment
Plan to share: Yes — All IPD recorded in the medical record will be shared with intramural investigators upon request. @@@@@@In addition, all large scale genomic sequencing data will be shared with subscribers to dbGaP.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form
Time frame: Clinical data available during the study and indefinitely.@@@@@@Genomic data are available once genomic data are uploaded per protocol GDS plan for as long as database is active.
Access criteria: Clinical data will be made available via subscription to BTRIS and with the permission of the study PI. @@@@@@Genomic data are made available via dbGaP through requests to the data custodians.
Started Mar 2022 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2028, 81 months after the start.
Of 40 phase 1/2 interventional studies under Cholangiocarcinoma, half reached primary completion within 68 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 41 and three quarters within 77. This study's planned 81 months is above that.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
Contact study teamGet an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Studies of the drug tested here: Tivozanib
National Cancer Institute (NCI) →