Robert A. Figlin, MD, on the Potential Importance of Adjuvant IO in Bladder Cancer

At the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, CancerNetwork® sat down with Robert A. Figlin, MD, professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine, Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Hematology-Oncology, and deputy director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer, to highlight the potential importance of adjuvant immunotherapy in bladder cancer. As previous research has identified significant benefit with this modality, Figlin emphasizes the importance of discovering the best role for immunotherapy in this patient population.

Transcript:

Concomitant with ASCO was a recent New England Journal of Medicine article talking about immunotherapy in the invasive bladder cancer population, [which demonsted] a substantial and significant benefit [to therapy]. We should start to think about adjuvant immunotherapy for bladder cancer. [This would be] primarily diseases of the bladder, not necessarily the ureter or the kidney. As we continue to expand and search for appropriate roles for immunotherapy, we should not forget other diseases like bladder cancer in that setting.

Reference

Bajorin DF, Witjes JA, Gschwend JE, et al. Adjuvant Nivolumab versus Placebo in Muscle-Invasive Urothelial Carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 2021;384(22):2102-2114. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2034442