Researching Varying Histologies in Bladder Cancer

Sam S. Chang, MD, MBA, professor Department of Urology, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Urologic Surgery, and chief surgical officer and chief of the Division of Urologic Oncology at Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, discusses unanswered research questions about histologic subtypes of bladder cancer.

Varying histologies in bladder cancer is not new, explains Chang, but the research around these histologies is just beginning. So far, research has shown that some histologies are more aggressive and the best therapies to use for aggressive forms of bladder cancer are unknown.

In an abstract presented by Chang at the 2022 American Urological Association Annual Meeting, investigators explored treatment with N-803 and Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) for patients with BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Transcription:

0:07 | Well, unfortunately, we have a whole category of what's called very histology. So, when it comes to bladder cancer varying histologies, they're not a brand-new entity, it they've been around forever, we're just starting to better recognize probably on the histopathologic level of what these kinds of specific entities are, [and] small cell carcinoma bladder is one of these, you know, varying histologies. That, in fact is much more aggressive. [Its] something that we really don't have a good feel for in terms of what's the ideal are best therapies.

0:30 | And as a result, you know, this abstract attempted to look at kind of what are the treatment parameters, how we best should attempt to treat these patients and down the line, you know, what our areas of future need in terms of research.