Dr. Balar on the Future of Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer

Arjun V. Balar, MD, director, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Program, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses the future of immunotherapy in bladder cancer.

Immunotherapy is going to become a staple of care in bladder cancer, potentially in the frontline setting, says Balar. In both the phase III KEYNOTE-361 and phase III IMvigor130 trials, immunotherapy is being compared with chemotherapy and may further prove that this approach is here to stay. Both studies are comparing platinum chemotherapy alone with immunotherapy alone as well as platinum-based chemotherapy plus immunotherapy.

Many medical oncologists in the field anticipate that platinum-based chemotherapy plus immunotherapy will become a new standard of care for patients in the frontline setting, says Balar. Even for patients who are not eligible for any chemotherapy, immunotherapy will still have a role because the majority of patients who cannot tolerate chemotherapy can feasibly receive immunotherapy, he concludes.