Dr. Galsky Discusses Combination Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer

Matthew Galsky, MD, professor of medicine, hematology, and medical oncology, Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses combination immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with bladder cancer.

Galsky says that a big question in the platinum-resistant setting of metastatic bladder cancer is the use of combination immunotherapy. Data from other solid tumors such as melanoma, kidney cancer, and lung cancer, have shown that combination immunotherapy might increase response rates compared with single-agent therapy. These responses also tend to be quite durable, Galsky explains.

The CheckMate-901 study (NCT03036098) is currently exploring the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) or standard of care versus standard of care alone in patients with previously untreated unresectable or metastatic bladder cancer. Standard of care in this population is a cisplatin-containing regimen. This phase III, randomized, open-label study is a more complex randomization, Galsky says, as it is handled differently based on whether patients are cisplatin-eligible or cisplatin-ineligible.

The primary endpoint of CheckMate-901 is based on the cisplatin-ineligible population, who are being randomized to either nivolumab plus ipilimumab or standard of care cisplatin.