Bladder Cancer

Shilpa Gupta, MD, discusses the progress over the last few years in bladder cancer.

The combination of lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab induced responses in a quarter of patients with urothelial carcinoma, according to the results of a small study presented at the 2019 ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium. The immunotherapy/targeted therapy combination also demonstrated a manageable toxicity profile.

Bempegaldesleukin, a novel interleukin-2 therapy, showed promising activity when combined with nivolumab in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma who were cisplatin ineligible or refused standard therapy, according to preliminary data from the PIVOT-02 study.

According to findings from an open-label, single-arm phase I/II basket study presented during the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, 14 of 45 patients with relapsed/refractory metastatic urothelial cancer demonstrated an objective response to sacituzumab govitecan, for an objective response rate of 31.1%.

Petros Grivas, MD, PhD, discusses the rapidly evolving locally advanced and metastatic bladder cancer field.

Jonathan L. Wright, MD, MS, FACS, highlighted the available therapies for patients with localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Arjun V. Balar, MD, discusses a few approaches for incorporating immunotherapy treatments into the frontline for patients with bladder cancer.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with a dose-dense, or accelerated, course of methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin was more likely to produce a complete pathologic response and extend overall survival than any other chemotherapy regimen in patients with bladder cancer treated with cystectomy, according to a study published in <em>JAMA Oncology</em>.

This week the FDA granted a fast track designation to the novel targeted therapy vofatamab for the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who harbor an <em>FGFR3 </em>alteration, according to Rainier Therapeutics, the company developing vofatamab.

Joaquim Bellmunt, MD, PhD, discusses recent immunotherapy advancements in bladder cancer and what future research will look like.