Dr. Plimack on the Growth of Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer

Elizabeth Plimack, MD, director of Genitourinary Clinical Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses the growth of immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with bladder cancer.

The last FDA approval in bladder cancer prior to May 2016 was cisplatin in 1978. There has been a long drought in treatment development, which makes the recent FDA approvals and the growing interest in bladder cancer exciting, says Plimack. There are currently more trials than ever before, which will improve the care patients with bladder cancer receive.

There will be more upcoming data that will advance the field forward. The current standard of care might not be the standard much longer, explains Plimack. Most recently, findings from the KEYNOTE-045 trial demonstrated a 27% reduction in the risk of progression or death when patients with advanced bladder cancer who had progressed after prior treatment were treated with pembrolizumab (Keytruda).