Thomas Powles MBBS, MRCP, MD

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, is a professor of genitourinary oncology and the director of the Barts Cancer Centre at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, England.

Articles

Dr Powles on the Role of the CREST Study in Future Clinical Trial Design in BCG-Naive NMIBC

August 21st 2025

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses how future clinical trials could leverage the CREST trial as a basis for BCG-naive NMIBC treatment development.

Final Clinical Perspectives: EV+P is the New Standard of Care in Frontline Treatment of UC

December 6th 2024

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses how according to the ESMO guidelines, enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab (EV+P) has become the new standard of first-line therapy in advanced urothelial carcinoma, and if there are patients who are ineligible for EV+P, alternatives are available such as nivolumab plus cisplatin/gemcitabine or platinum-based chemotherapy followed by maintenance avelumab.

Timeline of Enfortumab Vedotin in UC: From Previously Treated UC to Frontline Therapy

December 6th 2024

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses how antibody-drug conjugates have demonstrated improvement over chemotherapy. Data from the EV-301 trial shows that the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin decreased the risk of death by 30% versus chemotherapy. Later trial data showed that treatment using enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab (EV+P) reduced the risk of patient death by 53%.

Challenges With Avelumab Maintenance in Bladder Cancer and Introduction to ADCs in UC

November 29th 2024

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses how avelumab maintenance in bladder cancer has been challenging. Specifically in sequenced immune therapy, there was a 25% decrease in patient deaths, but only 50% of the patients survived. Powles also introduces the anatomy of an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC).

KEYNOTE-361 Highlights: Challenges and Insights

November 29th 2024

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses how the KEYNOTE-361 trial failed because of the trial’s design. Data show that the maintenance phase of the trial is what was driving the benefit and that the longest survival with this trial was 17 months with both pembrolizumab and chemotherapy treatment rather than just chemotherapy.

Single-Agent Immune Therapy in UC: The Need for More

November 22nd 2024

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses how different trials have been used to study urothelial cancer (UC) treatments, including DANUBE, IMvigor130, and KEYNOTE-361, all of which are frontline, randomized, phase 3 studies that were unsuccessful. A trial that had better results involved nivolumab plus gemcitabine/cisplatin, due to patients being in better physical condition to withstand chemotherapy.

Outlining the Current First-Line Treatment Landscape in Metastatic Urothelial Cancer: Starting With a Cisplatin-Ineligible Patient Case

November 22nd 2024

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses how upon examining an elderly patient experiencing hematuria, they were found to have had a transurethral resection of a bladder tumor, which revealed the presence of muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The patient is determined to have metastatic disease and is ineligible for cisplatin chemotherapy in the first line.

Treatment Options for Newly Diagnosed Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma

January 11th 2022

Expert perspectives on optimal treatment approaches in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

The Landscape of Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma

December 23rd 2021

A brief overview of the advanced urothelial carcinoma landscape encompassing disease course and standard of care treatment strategies.

Dr. Powles on the Rationale to Evaluate ctDNA in High-Risk Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

December 22nd 2020

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses the rationale to evaluate circulating tumor DNA in high-risk muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Dr. Powles on the Role of ctDNA Positivity in High-Risk Muscle-Invasive Urothelial Cancer

December 15th 2020

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, discusses the role of circulating tumor DNA positivity in high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial cancer.

Dr. Powles on FDA Approval of Pembrolizumab Plus Axitinib in Advanced RCC

April 22nd 2019

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, director, Barts Cancer Institute, discusses the FDA approval of the combination of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus axitinib (Inlyta) for the frontline treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Dr. Powles on the Results of the KEYNOTE-426 Trial in mRCC

March 15th 2019

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, director, Barts Cancer Institute, discusses the results of the KEYNOTE-426 trial in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Dr. Powles on Rationale for KEYNOTE-426 in mRCC

March 11th 2019

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, director, Barts Cancer Institute, discusses the rationale for the KEYNOTE-426 study in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Dr. Powles on Potential With Durvalumab in Papillary RCC

February 17th 2019

Thomas Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, director, Barts Cancer Institute, discusses durvalumab in combination with a MET inhibitor in the treatment of patients with papillary renal cancer.

Dr. Powles on the Current State of Research in Bladder Cancer

December 1st 2018

Thomas Powles MBBS, MRCP, MD, professor of Genitourinary Oncology, lead, Solid Tumour Research, Barts Cancer Institute, director, Barts Cancer Centre, discusses the current state of research in bladder cancer.

Dr. Powles on Biomarkers for Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer

November 14th 2018

Thomas Powles MBBS, MRCP, MD, professor of Genitourinary Oncology, lead, Solid Tumour Research, Barts Cancer Institute, director, Barts Cancer Centre, discusses biomarkers for immunotherapy in bladder cancer.