Dr. Oh Discusses Updates in Bladder Cancer Treatment

William K. Oh, MD, Chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center, discusses recent updates in bladder cancer treatment.

Oh says bladder cancer has been a difficult disease to treat for many years. Since the approval of gemcitabine 10-15 years ago, there really has not been anything approved for this disease.

At the 2014 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, Matthew Milowsky, MD, from UNC Lineberg, discussed new targets for the treatment of bladder cancer, Oh says. These targets are both molecular, such as FGFR, and immune targets, such as PD-1 and PD-L1.

Oh says bladder cancer is very much driven by mutational changes that make it a good 'immunogenic cancer.' PD-1 and PD-L1 antibodies have now shown in clinical trials to have very significant activity in up to 1/3 of patients or more, Oh says.