Arlene Siefker-Radtke, MD, emphasizes the importance of early mutation profiling in metastatic urothelial cancer and highlights the potential for targeted agents and clinical trials to improve treatment outcomes.
Transcript:
Arlene O. Siefker-Radtke, MD: We are often seeing patients who have had prior treatment or even referrals from urology coming in with mutation profiles in hand. Personally, I think this is quite wonderful. I believe we should test for these mutation profiles very early in a patient’s disease, especially the moment they have metastatic or incurable urothelial cancer since we have targeted agents that target FGFR3 mutations and we also have many clinical trials targeting novel mutations that may be present on a patient’s tumor.
There [are] also trials studying FGF-targeted therapy in the neoadjuvant or adjuvant spaces and in superficial bladder cancer. So our urologic oncology colleagues are gaining an interest in novel targeted strategies as well. We currently have an approval with pembrolizumab for superficial bladder cancer patients, and patients have been referred to medical oncologists like myself, and potentially you as well, for treatment with an immune checkpoint inhibitor. So I think it’s very important to have a close tie and play a tight role with our urologic oncology colleagues who do the surgeries as patients will need frequent monitoring of the urothelium, and we may see additional targeted agents approved in earlier-stage disease.
Transcript is AI-generated and edited for clarity and readability.
Case: A 73-Year-Old Man with Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma
Initial Clinical Presentation:
Current Clinical Presentation:
Treatment: