Dr. Balar on Remaining Questions With Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer

Article

In Partnership With:

Arjun V. Balar, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, director, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Program, NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses remaining questions with immunotherapy in bladder cancer.

Arjun V. Balar, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, director, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Program, NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses remaining questions with immunotherapy in bladder cancer.

Among the success that has been seen with immunotherapy in the bladder cancer space, questions on specific populations and novel combinations remain.

Patients with liver metastases do poorly with immunotherapy across the board, irrespective of the solid tumor type, Balar explains. These patients have shown response rates to immunotherapy from 8% to 15% in various studies. It is said that patients with FGFR3 do not do well with immunotherapy, which Balar notes is a controversial topic. He adds that these patients will need to be addressed moving forward. The role of CTLA4 blockade is still under question. Combinations of CTLA4 plus PD-1 blockade have shown improved responses, both in patients with high and low PD-L1 expression, Balar says.

The role for combination immunotherapy with platinum-based therapy is being tested in 2 large randomized trials in first-line bladder cancer. Many in the field expect to see this combination to become the new standard in the treatment of patients with advanced bladder cancer, Balar says.

Related Videos
In this second episode of OncChats: Leveraging Immunotherapy in GI Malignancies, Toufic Kachaamy, MD, of City of Hope, Sunil Sharma, MD, of City of Hope, and Madappa Kundranda, MD, PhD, of Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, explain the challenges faced with preventing or detecting these cancers early and the understanding that is needed to develop effective early detection methods and move the needle forward.
In this first episode of OncChats: Leveraging Immunotherapy in GI Malignancies, Toufic Kachaamy, MD, of City of Hope, Sunil Sharma, MD, of City of Hope, and Madappa Kundranda, MD, PhD, of Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, discuss the potential for early detection multiomic assays and the work that still needs to be done to encourage their widespread use.
Emmanuel Antonarakis, MD, associate director, Translational Research, Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Clark Endowed Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School
Gautam Jha, MD, medical director, M Health Fairview Masonic Cancer Clinic and the Advanced Treatment Center at the M Health Fairview Clinics and Surgery Center—Minneapolis, chair, cancer committee, M Health Fairview Ridges Hospital
Ricardo D. Parrondo, MD, hematologist/oncologist, Mayo Clinic
Ilyas Sahin, MD
Raj Singh, MD
Jaime R. Merchán, MD, professor, co-leader, Translational and Clinical Oncology Research Program, director, Phase 1 Clinical Trials Program, Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
Saad J. Kenderian, MB, CHB
Tycel Phillips, MD