Abstract
Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is a catastrophic malignancy of the intrahepatic bile ducts and one of the neoplasms with incidence rates that have been rising faster than almost any other cancer. This steady increase combined with the high mortality rates underscore the fact that optimal management of iCCA remains a challenge. While immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) as single agents have elicited discouraging results in patients with iCCA, the combination of chemotherapy plus anti-PD-L1 blockade has recently become the new standard of care, underscoring the importance of designing rational combination strategies able to increase the therapeutic efficacy of ICIs. To do so, a thorough understanding of the tumor-immune interactions is becoming critical. This commentary aims to discuss recent advancements in our understanding of the complex relationship between tumor cells and the surrounding immune microenvironment of iCCA, with particular emphasis on our recent manuscript published in the journal Gut (Martin-serrano et al., 2022) [1].