DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000489503.40733.8f
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Issn Print: 0276-2234
Publication Date: 2016/07/10
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Excerpt
Atezolizumab shrank tumors in about a quarter of patients and yielded a median survival of 14.8 months. Typically, patients in this setting have a survival of 9-10 months with carboplatin-based regimens.
“This is a compelling argument for atezolizumab as a new potential standard of care in cisplatin-ineligible advanced bladder cancer. The durable nature of response and favorable adverse events profile makes this an attractive alternative to chemotherapy,” said lead author Arjun V. Balar, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the New York University Langone Medical Center and Director of Genitourinary Medical Oncology at the NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center in New York, N.Y.
“Up to half of these patients are too frail to receive the only known survival-prolonging treatment, cisplatin. There is really no standard treatment for such patients. We are encouraged to see that atezolizumab immunotherapy may help address this major unmet need.”
The standard upfront treatment for advanced bladder cancer is cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Patients receiving this therapy have a median survival of 12-15 months. However, for 30-50 percent of patients with advanced bladder cancer, cisplatin chemotherapy is not considered a safe option due to their advanced age, kidney function, and ongoing medical conditions. Such patients may receive carboplatin-based chemotherapy, which provides a median survival of 9-10 months.
