Dr. Kamran on the state of bladder preservation in 2023

In this video, Sophia C. Kamran, MD, discusses the current state of bladder-sparing treatment in muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Kamran is a radiation oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Transcription:

Where are we with bladder preservation in 2023?

We have come a long way. We've made great strides with bladder preservation on many fronts, but I would say, in particular, that radiotherapy has come a long way. There have been many great advances in imaging and targeting technology. For patients, that's a huge win. We see lower toxicity rates; we see better tolerance of the regimen overall. And I think it's becoming more widely adopted in the United States. We see more centers that are offering bladder preservation. A few years ago, [we saw] the opening of the largest bladder preservation trial that's currently ongoing, the NRG/SWOG 1806 trial. This is evaluating bladder preservation with standard chemo radiotherapy vs chemo radiotherapy plus adding an immunotherapy agent, atezolizumab [Tecentriq]. It is accruing very well, it's very large, and there are many centers that have it open. So I think we have come a long way in the past decade or so. I'm excited for all the future opportunities to improve upon bladder preservation for our patients.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.