Bladder Cancer

A 67-year-old man, a former smoker, presented with gross hematuria. A CT urogram showed a bladder tumor in the anterior wall and multiple enlarged retroperitoneal lymph nodes. Two vertebral metastases were seen on a bone scan. He underwent a transurethral resection of the bladder, and the pathology report revealed muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma.

Adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy is associated with delayed metastasis among patients diagnosed with upper-tract urothelial carcinoma, according to findings from the phase III POUT trial.

Long-term follow-up showed that atezolizumab remained well tolerated over more than 3 years, with durable clinical benefit in metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

A newly developed clinical model can predict overall survival for patients diagnosed with advanced bladder cancer who are treated with atezolizumab.

Bladder cancer patients with tumors smaller than 1 cm could be classified as “very-low-risk,” with recurrences that could arise after the 5-year surveillance period.

A study found familial clustering of urothelial cancers, with increased risk of bladder cancer and others, in first- and second-degree relatives of these patients.

The immune checkpoint inhibitor avelumab showed promising antitumor activity and a manageable toxicity profile in patients with platinum-refractory metastatic urothelial carcinoma, according to a new analysis.

In this article, we discuss the requirements for development and validation of urine markers and the factors that hamper their clinical implementation. We also review current surveillance guidelines for NMIBC and provide an overview of approved urine markers for the detection and surveillance of NMIBC.

The gut microbiome affects the efficacy of PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade immunotherapy against melanoma and other cancers, according to a pair of recent studies.

In this interview we discuss results of the HYBRID trial, which tested a hypofractionated regimen of 36 Gy over six fractions in elderly muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients who were ineligible for standard treatments.

An analysis of treatment patterns found that patients with advanced urinary tract cancer who are eligible for cisplatin-based chemotherapy fare better when they do receive such regimens than when they do not, highlighting the importance of following published treatment criteria.

Patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma who do not undergo definitive therapy have poorer outcomes than those who do, according to a new study.

The combination of ramucirumab and docetaxel prolonged progression-free survival over chemotherapy alone in patients with platinum-refractory advanced urothelial carcinoma, the first time in this setting that a regimen has improved outcomes over chemotherapy.

The advantage with pembrolizumab has continued to improve, offering significantly better overall survival than chemotherapy in patients with recurrent, advanced urothelial carcinoma, according to the mature results of a phase III trial.

In patients with stage II to III urothelial carcinoma, bladder-preservation therapy was associated with poorer overall survival compared with radical cystectomy, according to a database study.

Certain histologic variants of urothelial bladder cancer benefit more from neoadjuvant chemotherapy, according to a new study.

An immediate instillation of chemotherapy with mitomycin C following transurethral resection of a bladder tumor reduced the risk of recurrence of non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

A urine test of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) was found to be a reliable predictor of recurrence in non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer, according to a new study.

Lack of participation in any regular recreational physical activity was associated with a significantly increased risk for both bladder and renal cancers.

After extended follow-up, the KEYNOTE-052 study has shown that first-line pembrolizumab offers durable responses and no new safety signals in patients with cisplatin-ineligible advanced urothelial cancer.

The combination of pembrolizumab and the IDO1 inhibitor epacadostat was active and generally well tolerated in patients with urothelial carcinoma.

The FDA has granted approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the first- and second-line settings for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Treatment with intravesical gemcitabine following surgery reduced the risk of recurrence in patients with low-grade non–muscle invasive bladder cancer.

This video examines second-line treatment options for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients who relapse after BCG therapy and are not eligible for radical cystectomy.

New studies at the AUA Annual Meeting highlight the links between smoking and bladder cancer. In one, smoking intensity was linked to survival outcomes, while two others show that electronic cigarettes likely contribute to bladder cancer risk.

An interim analysis of the phase III IMvigor211 study found that atezolizumab did not meet its primary endpoint of improving overall survival over chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer.

The FDA has granted accelerated approval to avelumab (Bavencio) for treating locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma patients whose disease progressed following treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy.

The FDA has approved durvalumab (Imfinzi) for the treatment of patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma whose disease has progressed after treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy.

The FDA has expanded its approval of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the treatment of advanced bladder cancer to include the initial therapy of patients who are not eligible for cisplatin chemotherapy.

This video examines a study that used liquid biopsies to monitor disease progression in patients with bladder cancer.