Dr. Garje on unmet needs for patients with sarcomatoid urothelial carcinoma

Rohan Garje, MD, chief of GU medical oncology at Miami Cancer Institute, Baptist Health South Florida, discusses unmet needs for patients with sarcomatoid urothelial carcinoma, a rare bladder cancer variant. This video was filmed during the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting, where Garje shared the study, “Survival outcomes of sarcomatoid versus classic urothelial carcinoma of bladder,” (abstract 4588).

Video Transcript

In terms of unmet needs, obviously, whenever we see a rare cancer, the data is limited. Obviously, the next level question is, In terms of molecular information, what kind of mutations are common?Are there any set patterns of mutations that can be identified? And eventually, are they targetable? Are there any medications which we can use to control and have better responses in this cancer because, as you know, in bladder cancer, we already have FGFR-based targets where we have shown there is a good response rate and survival benefit, but it's a small fraction. Again, this is a group predominantly with classical urothelial variant. Now we are learning about HER2 amplifications in bladder cancer and there are so many other new mutations, such as DDR based mutations, which we can identify those in the subgroup. That would be a good segue to find targeted treatments for this rare variant.

Transcription has been edited for clarity.