Understanding Unique Treatment Options Across Bladder Cancer Care

Strategies for the treatment of bladder cancer may vary by stage and tumor characteristics, which is important for patients to know, according to Dr. Daniel P. Petrylak, who added that recent advances have offered patients more targeted and effective options across all stages of disease.

To further discuss this topic, Petrylak, chief of Genitourinary Oncology and professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Urology at Yale School of Medicine, located in New Haven, Connecticut, sat down for an interview with CURE during Bladder Cancer Awareness Month.

Throughout the discussion, he explained the different types of bladder cancer and how treatment options may vary based on disease stage and type.

Transcript:

There is non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, muscle-invasive bladder cancer and metastatic bladder cancer. In non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, treatment depends on the tumor's grade and [any] prior treatments. Low-grade tumors can sometimes be controlled by simply scraping the bladder. However, more aggressive histology may require intravesical therapy, such as BCG, which is a standard of care.

For patients who have [progressed on] BCG, newer agents and standard chemotherapy drugs like gemcitabine and docetaxel can be given inside the bladder to control the disease and prevent it from invading the muscle. The muscle layer is key, and it's crucial to ask your physician whether it's involved and if there was sufficient muscle in the scraping to make that determination, because once the cancer reaches the muscle, the approach changes significantly.

The muscle contains blood vessels and lymphatics that can carry the tumor to other parts of the body. In that situation — cancer in the muscle — we consider bladder cancer to be systemic, similar to breast cancer. Standard chemotherapy, which for years was a combination of drugs called MVAC or gemcitabine and cisplatin, is the standard treatment for these patients before bladder removal.

Discussing the appropriateness of these treatments with the surgeon or oncologist is essential before proceeding with a cystectomy. Afterward, for patients with high-risk disease, we are now using adjuvant immunotherapy. Cystectomy is not the only approach for localized bladder cancer; a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy is also an option, and there is ongoing debate about whether this is equivalent to a radical cystectomy. That summarizes localized disease.

In metastatic disease, I think the most significant advances have been made in the last 10 to 15 years. The dawn of immunotherapy in this disease began around 2013 with the first trials of checkpoint inhibitors such as Tecentriq (atezolizumab), Keytruda (pembrolizumab), Imfinzi (durvalumab), Bavencio (avelumab) and Opdivo (nivolumab). Five checkpoint inhibitors were approved at one point and three currently remain as standard treatments. As mentioned, Opdivo is given as adjuvant therapy for a year. There is also data for Keytruda, as well.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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