ASCO Annual Meeting: Bladder Cancer and RCC

The application for adjuvant pembrolizumab in renal cell carcinoma is supported by data from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-564 trial, which were presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.

"There is clearly a lot of interest in the urologic oncology world toward bladder preservation for both muscle-invasive bladder cancer as well as early-stage non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer," says Arjun V. Balar, MD.

Arjun V. Balar, MD, discusses notable findings from 2 separate studies of pembrolizumab (Keytruda).

Arjun V. Balar, MD, describes the 2 “very distinct patient populations” of separate phase 2 studies from ASCO 2021 involving the treatment pembrolizumab (Keytruda).

Results from a pooled analysis of frontline treatment in metastatic renal cell carcinoma provided early evidence of a differential overall survival benefit between patients with favorable-risk disease compared to patients with intermediate/poor-risk disease.

“The key message from this abstract is that the time duration for starting avelumab [Bavencio] maintenance didn't really affect the outcomes,” says Shilpa Gupta, MD.

Shilpa Gupta, MD, discusses several recent studies in the metastatic urothelial carcinoma space.

"I think [at] the 2021 ASCO annual meeting, we saw a lot of novel data focusing on bladder-preservation approaches," says Shilpa Gupta, MD.

Miron presented a study at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting that explored the influence of first-line chemotherapy choice on survival outcomes in patients who received immunotherapy in the second-line setting.

In this video, Shilpa Gupta, MD, discusses the rapidly evolving world of research on urothelial carcinoma.

Miron et al specifically compared the choice between frontline cisplatin plus gemcitabine versus frontline carboplatin plus gemcitabine in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma.

“Treatment was associated with manageable adverse events, which did not compromise surgical resection,” said lead study author Samuel A. Funt, MD.

Robert J. Motzer, MD, discusses health-related quality of life analyses from the phase 3 CLEAR trial of frontline pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

In an interview conducted during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting, Robert A. Figlin, MD, deputy director, Cedars-Sinai Cancer, shared his expertise on trends in the treatment of patients with genitourinary cancers.

“The complete clinical response rate of 48% was somewhat surprising, although consistent with our assumptions in terms of the statistical design of the study,” says Matthew Galsky, MD.

Integrating immunotherapy into bladder-sparing approaches may enhance the efficacy and uptake of these strategies in bladder cancer.

Robert A. Figlin, MD, discusses results from the phase 2 CANTATA study of cabozantinib plus telaglenastat in patients with advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Nearly two-thirds of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma responded to the combination.

“I think the data from this particular abstract pretty much reinforce that if you get avelumab as maintenance therapy, the time that patients spend in first- and second-line therapy is prolonged compared to patients who get best supportive care,” says Petros Grivas, MD, PhD.

Chung-Han Lee, MD, PhD, discusses the ongoing open-label phase 2 KEYNOTE-B61 study of frontline pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib in non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Petros Grivas, MD, PhD, discusses posthoc findings from the phase 3 JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Toni K. Choueiri, MD, discusses the clinical and regulatory implications of the phase 3 KEYNOTE-564 trial, which explored pembrolizumab following nephrectomy in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Benefits in progression-free survival and overall response rate were also observed for the pembrolizumab/lenvatinib arm across risk-defined subgroups.

Figlin shares his expert observations on important questions that still remain, despite the positive results of the trial.

The HIF-2α inhibitor continued to induce strong responses in patients with Von-Hippel Lindau (VHL)–associated renal cell carcinoma and other VHL-associated neoplasms.

A phase 2 study explored the addition of berzosertib to standard cisplatin/gemcitabine in patients with advanced urothelial cancer.

Data presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual meeting showed that fewer patients in the lenvatinib/everolimus arm were treated with subsequent anticancer treatments compared with patients in the sunitinib arm.

“Recurrence of urothelial cancer, in particular metastatic recurrence, is associated with a detriment in quality of life in this exploratory analysis,” says Matthew Galsky, MD.

Nizar M. Tannir, MD, discusses results from the phase 2 CANTATA study of cabozantinib plus telaglenastat in patients with advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

The study explored pembrolizumab versus placebo following nephrectomy in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.