Bladder Cancer

It was once thought that after guiding the development of male sex organs in a fetus, the Y chromosome did not do much else. But over the past few years, results from multiple studies have challenged that belief. The most recent evidence comes from a new study that suggests that the Y chromosome may actually protect men from aggressive bladder cancer. Read More ›

During the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, a panel of experts identified some of the key challenges to achieving health equity in bladder cancer care and discussed what can be done to improve access to clinical trials, mitigate financial toxicity, and promote value-based care. Read More ›

On December 16, 2022, the FDA granted approval to nadofaragene firadenovec-vncg (Adstiladrin; Ferring Pharmaceuticals), a nonreplicating adenoviral vector–based gene therapy, for adults with high-risk Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) unresponsive non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and carcinoma in situ, with or without papillary tumors. The FDA granted this indication breakthrough therapy and orphan drug designations. Read More ›

Adjuvant therapy with atezolizumab (Tecentriq) did not meet the primary end point of disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with muscle-invasive urothelial cancer (MIUC) at high risk for recurrence versus observation alone in the primary analysis of the IMvigor010 trial. Read More ›

Interim analysis of the phase 3 JAVELIN Bladder 100 clinical trial showed that maintenance therapy with the PD-L1 inhibitor avelumab (Bavencio) plus best supportive care significantly prolonged overall survival (OS) versus best supportive care alone in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma whose disease did not progress with first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. Read More ›

A combination of nivolumab (Opdivo), gemcitabine (Gemzar), and cisplatin as neoadjuvant therapy resulted in a pathologic nonmuscle-invasive rate of 66% and a pathologic complete response rate (pCR) of 49% in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), according to results from the phase 2 BLASST-1 clinical trial. Read More ›

On December 2, 2019, Merck announced that the FDA has granted priority review for its supplemental biologics license application for the anti–PD-1 agent pembrolizumab (Keytruda). If approved, the drug would be indicated as monotherapy to treat patients with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin–unresponsive, high-risk, non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer who are ineligible for or have decided not to undergo cystectomy. Read More ›