Oncology Experts Preview Top Abstracts From 2025 ASCO GU

Ahead of this year’s Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, OncLive® asked leading oncologists in the space to share what presentations they are most excited to learn more about during the meeting and why.

This exclusive preview features insights from the following:

• Bradley McGregor, MD, who is the director of Clinical Research for the Lank Center of Genitourinary Oncology and medical oncologist specializing in genitourinary malignancies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston, Massachusetts;
• Guru P. Sonpavde, MD, who is the medical director of Genitourinary Oncology, assistant director of the Clinical Research Unit, and Christopher K, Glanz Chair for Bladder Cancer Research at the AdventHealth Cancer Institute, in Orlando, Florida;
• Vikram M. Narayan, MD, who practices at Emory University Hospital, serves as director of urological oncology at Grady Memorial Hospital, and is an assistant professor in the Department of Urology at Emory University School of Medicine and a member of the Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, Georgia; and
• David A. Braun, MD, PhD, who is an assistant professor of medicine (medical oncology), the Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman Yale Scholar, and member of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Connecticut.

McGregor’s list

Abstract LBA18: Final overall survival with talazoparib + enzalutamide as first-line treatment in unselected patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in the phase 3 TALAPRO-2 trial

Abstract LBA141: Final overall survival with talazoparib + enzalutamide as first-line treatment in patients with homologous recombination repair-deficient metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in the Phase 3 TALAPRO-2 trial

“The press release has noted an improvement in overall survival [OS]; the magnitude of benefit in the entire population and the homologous recombination–deficient population will reinforce [the activity] of the combination for patients with homologous recombination repair deficiencies and continue the debate of its use across all patients.”

Abstract 437: Evaluation of circulating kidney injury marker-1 as a prognostic and predictive biomarker in advanced renal cell carcinoma: Post-hoc analysis of CheckMate 214

“[This will provide] interesting data on changes in KIM-1 to predict the benefit of nivolumab [Opdivo]/ipilimumab [Yervoy] after only one dose [in this population].”

Sonpavde’s list

Abstract 659: Additional efficacy and safety outcomes and an exploratory analysis of the impact of pathological complete response (pCR) on long-term outcomes from NIAGRA

“Perioperative durvalumab [Imfinzi] combined with neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy reduced the risk of developing metastases and death from bladder cancer. Durvalumab improved event-free survival and OS in both pathologic complete response [pCR] and non-pCR groups. These data further support the role of perioperative durvalumab combined with cisplatin-based chemotherapy as a new standard for patients with non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer.”

Abstract 658: Adjuvant nivolumab (NIVO) vs placebo (PBO) for high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma (MIUC): Additional efficacy outcomes including overall survival (OS) in patients (pts) with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) from CheckMate 274

“With 3-year median follow-up, consistent benefit in disease-free survival was observed with adjuvant nivolumab in all [patients with] muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma, regardless of prior neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and favored those with a PD-L1 [expression of] 1% [or higher]. These results continue to support adjuvant nivolumab as a standard of care [SOC], potentially providing an opportunity for a curative outcome.”

Abstract 663: Datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) in locally advanced/metastatic urothelial cancer: Updated results from the phase 1 TROPIONPanTumor01 study

“Datopotamab deruxtecan [Datroway], a TROP2-binding antibody-drug conjugate with a topoisomerase-1 inhibitor payload, demonstrated encouraging antitumor activity with a manageable safety profile in heavily pretreated patients [with] advanced urothelial carcinoma.”

Abstract 662: A first-in-human phase 1 study of LY3866288 (LOXO-435), a potent, highly isoform-selective FGFR3 inhibitor (FGFR3i) in advanced solid tumors with FGFR3 alterations: Initial results from FORAGER-1

“LY3866288, an oral, potent, selective, small molecule FGFR3 inhibitor designed to limit off-target toxicities with preserved activity against acquired FGFR3 resistance mutations is well tolerated with robust clinical activity, including in erdafitinib [Balversa]-refractory metastatic urothelial carcinoma.”

On both Sonpavde’s and McGregor’s lists

Abstract 664: EV-302: Updated analysis from the phase 3 global study of enfortumab vedotin in combination with pembrolizumab vs chemotherapy in previously untreated locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma

McGregor: “[This trial was] already practice changing based on initial results with less than 18 months of follow-up. Extended follow-up will shed insight into durability and toxicity.”

Sonpavde: “Enfortumab vedotin [Padcev] plus pembrolizumab [Keytruda] continues to demonstrate superior efficacy vs chemotherapy in a broad population, confirming durable efficacy with no new safety signals, reinforcing enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab as SOC for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma.”

Narayan’s list

Abstract TPS891: ABLE-22: Safety and efficacy evaluation of nadofaragene firadenovec alone or in combination with chemotherapy or immunotherapy—A randomized, open-label, phase 2 study

“The ABLE-22 study is looking [at treating] Bacillus Calmette–Guérin [BCG]–unresponsive patients with nadofaragene firadenovec, with or without immunotherapy or chemotherapy—with the chemotherapy being gemcitabine and docetaxel, and the immunotherapy being pembrolizumab. That trial is now open at a couple of sites, and we’re awaiting accrual. We’re really interested to see [more from this].”

Abstract 777: Treatment of low-grade intermediate-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer with UGN-102: Results of the phase 3 ATLAS and ENVISION studies

Abstract 776: Impact of tumor burden or focality in recurrent low-grade intermediate-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer on response to treatment with UGN-102: A substudy of the phase 3 ENVISION trial

Abstract TPS888: ABLE-32: A randomized, controlled, phase 3b clinical trial of nadofaragene firadenovec-vncg versus observation in patients with intermediate-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer

“'I’m also interested in a lot of the work that’s being done in the intermediate-risk space. There are a number of clinical trials there. Part of the question will be, how much of those treatments are needed? [However], just to call out a few, some of which are being presented at [at the meeting, they] include UGN-102, which is the gel formulation of mitomycin, essentially as an ablative therapy for intermediate-risk [NMIBC]. There’s also PIVOT-006, which is a cretostimogene [grenadenorepvec] study for the same indication, [and] ABLE-32 as well, for nadofaragene [firadenovec-vncg].”

Abstract 802: Preliminary results from LEGEND: A phase 2 study of detalimogene voraplasmid (EG-70), a novel, non-viral intravesical gene therapy for patients with BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with carcinoma in situ (CIS)

“Another [agent for] BCG-unresponsive [NMIBC] that is under investigation is detalimogene voraplasmid, or EG-70. This is the LEGEND study. We’ve got some preliminary results expected at [the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium] for that, and it [will be] very interesting. We are a site at Emory for that study, and patients seem to tolerate that very well. I will also be presenting some of the translational work and the mechanism of action; it’s a non-viral immunotherapy, so we’ll be talking about that [at the meeting,] as well, at the poster session.”

Abstract TPS905: Phase 2 trial of immuno-ablation with intrabladder injection of N-803 or intravesical N-803 plus BCG for intermediate-risk non-muscle invasive papillary bladder cancer

“In terms of other [trials] that I am looking forward to [seeing], there was an interesting abstract submitted looking at a phase 2 study with immuno-ablation using nogapendekin alfa inbakicept-pmln [Anktiva; N-803.] In the intermediate-risk space, [this is examining] potentially doing an intra-bladder injection of that drug to see whether that has an impact on ablation, which I think is an interesting idea.”

Abstract 686: Upstaging and risk mitigation with blue light cystoscopy for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer: Results from a prospective multi-center registry

“[There is] another study that I [am interested in.] We struggle with the detection and the staging of these tumors. As part of that, many physicians use blue light, which is essentially an enhanced cystoscopic imaging modality. There have been [mixed] data on the utility of that and which patients that’s best used for. There’s a large blue light, real-world clinical registry, which Emory is a part of, and there are some data being presented [at the meeting.] I’m looking forward to learning [more] about that as well.”

Top of Braun’s list

Abstract 438: Cabozantinib (C) in combination with nivolumab (N) and ipilimumab (I) in previously untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC): Final results of COSMIC-313

“As an oncologist who specializes in kidney cancer, I’m always looking forward to the Saturday [of the meeting,] the kidney cancer day. I think the big one I’ll have my eye out for is the final OS analysis from COSMIC 313; that's a really important trial. It’s the first what I would call ‘modern comparator’ trial, where the comparator arm is immune therapy: nivolumab plus ipilimumab. It explored a really important question: Is triplet therapy with nivolumab plus ipilimumab [and] cabozantinib [Cabometyx] superior to doublet therapy with nivolumab plus ipilimumab?

We saw some benefit in terms of progression-free survival, that was published a number of years ago, but we also saw a lot of toxicity, a lot of [adverse] effects [AEs] with the triplet therapy. I had a patient, and I always remember the question he’d ask me before any type of therapy, anytime we’d have a therapeutic switch, because we knew there was always going to be AEs, he’d ask, ‘Is the juice worth the squeeze? Is it really worth getting the AEs? Am I really going to get benefit from it?’ I think this is where we’ll see that answer for COSMIC 313. We know there’s more AEs, we know PFS is better, but is this really going to translate to people living longer, to better overall survival? That’s going to be a really important study for the field.”