Loss of key necroptotic proteins has been shown to be a major hindrance for necroptosis-based treatments [22, 24, 29]; therefore, to evaluate the therapeutic potential of a novel necroptosis-based approach for CCA patients, we initially analyzed the mRNA expression of key necroptotic proteins, including RIPK1, RIPK3 and MLKL, in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset using an online tool called GEPIA [41]. Here, MLKL is linked to cholangiocarcinoma.