Dr. Plimack on Second-Line Checkpoint Inhibitors in Bladder Cancer

Elizabeth Plimack, MD, director of Genitourinary Clinical Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses the approved checkpoint inhibitors for the second-line treatment of patients with bladder cancer.

In 2017, the FDA approved nivolumab (Opdivo), durvalumab (Imfinzi), avelumab (Bavencio), and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the second-line treatment of patients with bladder cancer. These drugs join previously approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq).

It is hard to differentiate between these 5 regimens, says Plimack, as there are no randomized trials comparing them in this setting.