Bladder Cancer

“Of the 42 patients who achieved a complete response, 41 of those were evaluable for duration of response, which was the focus of the manuscript that was just published last month,” says Seth P. Lerner, MD.

Experts at the Cleveland Clinic are assessing standard surgical approaches in bladder cancer and identifying new ones.

Ali Raza Khaki, MD, discusses managing toxicities to ensure patients can continue to receive treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin.

In the study, adding maintenance avelumab to best supportive care (BSC) led to a 31% reduction in the risk of death versus BSC alone in patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer.

Erdafitinib is approved by the FDA for the treatment of adult patients with FGFR3/FGFR2-positive locally advanced or metastatic bladder cancer that has progressed on platinum-containing chemotherapy.

The investigators reported that overall perioperative transfusion rates were significantly lower in patients undergoing robot-assisted radical cystectomy.

Phillip Palmbos, MD, PhD, highlights four key questions that need to be answered in the first-line and neoadjuvant bladder cancer settings.

CheckMate-274 supported the FDA approval of nivolumab for the adjuvant treatment of patients with urothelial carcinoma.

Phillip Palmbos, MD, PhD, explains the latest research findings on the role of chemoimmunotherapy in patients with bladder cancer.

As an advocate for patients, Svetlana Avulova, MD, stresses the importance of this population of women with bladder cancer and how their desire to preserve sexual function through organ-sparing treatment should be recognized and validated.

The phase 3b study is exploring home instillation of UGN-102 for patients with low-grade, intermediate-risk non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Ulka Nitin Vaishampayan, MBBS, discusses the latest developments in the second-line setting in urothelial carcinoma.

At the 2021 Society of Urologic Oncology Annual Meeting, Alexander Kutikov, MD, FACS, gave a presentation on determining and helping improve the negative predictive value of cystoscopy in ruling out muscle invasive bladder cancer.

“I think discussing it and talking about the different techniques out there [is important],” says Svetlana Avulova, MD.

A study presented at the 2021 Society of Urologic Oncology Annual Meeting investigated adjuvant nivolumab in a population of patients with high risk of disease recurrence after radical surgery.

At the 2021 Society of Urologic Oncology Annual Meeting, a study was presented by Siv Venkat, MD, FRCSC, that evaluates the outcomes of the bladder-sparing method of segmental ureterectomy versus radical nephroureterectomy.

The antibody-drug conjugate was recommended for approval in the European Union based on findings from the phase 3 EV-301 trial.

"The problem is that we are not very good at predicting who is not harboring any cancer in their bladder,” says Alexander Kutikov, MD, FACS.

“The decrease of frequency in doing these procedures may not put improving the techniques of the procedure at the forefront of the surgeon's mind,” says Svetlana Avulova, MD.

"I'm hopeful and optimistic that over the next couple of years, we have some really reliable biomarkers to utilize in these patients who we know have frequent recurrences,"says Kristen Scarpato, MD, MPH.

Catch up on all the notable drug and device approvals in urology over the past year.

The FDA issued a complete response letter earlier this year regarding a biologics license application for the protein fusion drug in patients with BCG-unresponsive non–muscle invasive bladder cancer.

“I have no doubt that within 10 years…what we've been basing our treatment strategies and surveillance strategies of high-grade…papillary disease is still going to be there. But, in reality, we're really going to have a much better idea of individual risk stratification and characteristics of their tumors,” says Sam S. Chang, MD, MBA.

“We’re not doing enough lymph node dissections in upper tract disease,” says Siv Venkat, MD, FRCSC.

“The take-home message here is that adjuvant nivolumab improves disease-free survival in patients with muscle-invasive urothelial cancer at high risk for recurrence after surgery,” says Matthew D. Galsky, MD.