Studying Rarity in Bladder Cancer (European Urology)

Although immune checkpoints inhibitors (ICIs) are broadly used in clinical practice for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) [1,2], there are still numerous knowledge gaps and unmet needs to address and investigate. One issue is whether or not ICIs given at an earlier stage may improve the curability of nonmetastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Preliminary data from the PURE-01 [3] and ABACUS trials [4], two single-arm phase 2 trials of neoadjuvant ICI, have shown the tolerability and activity of both pembrolizumab and atezolizumab in this setting.