Efficacy of chemotherapy and atezolizumab in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer receiving antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors: pooled post hoc analyses of the OAK and POPLAR trials.

Background: Preclinical data have shown that proton pump inhibitors (PPI) can modulate the microbiome, and single-arm studies suggested that antibiotics (ATB) may decrease the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), but randomized controlled trial data are lacking. This pooled analysis evaluated the effect of ATB and PPI on outcome in patients randomized between ICI and chemotherapy.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective analysis used pooled data from the phase II POPLAR (NCT01903993) and phase III OAK (NCT02008227) trials, which included 1512 patients with previously treated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) randomly assigned to receive atezolizumab (n = 757) or docetaxel (n = 755).

Deferred Cytoreductive Nephrectomy Following Presurgical Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-targeted Therapy in Patients with Primary Metastatic Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Pooled Analysis of Prospective Trial Data.

Background: Cancer du Rein Métastatique Nephrectomie et Antiangiogéniques (CARMENA) concluded that sunitinib alone is not inferior to cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) followed by vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (VEGFR-TKIs) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. It remains uncertain whether deferred CN is beneficial in this setting.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare outcome in patients treated with presurgical VEGFR-TKI followed by CN (deferred CN) with that in patients receiving CN followed by VEGFR-TKI (upfront CN).

Outcomes based on age in the phase III METEOR trial of cabozantinib versus everolimus in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Background: Cabozantinib improved progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and objective response rate (ORR) compared with everolimus in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after prior antiangiogenic therapy in the phase III METEOR trial (NCT01865747). Limited data are available on the use of targeted therapies in older patients with advanced RCC.

Methods: Efficacy and safety in METEOR were retrospectively analysed for three age subgroups: <65 (n = 394), 65-74 (n = 201) and ≥75 years (n = 63).

Cytoreductive nephrectomy: does CARMENA (Cancer du Rein Metastatique Nephrectomie et Antiangiogéniques) change everything?

Purpose Of Review: Over the past few years the treatment options for renal cell cancer (RCC) have rapidly evolved. Even in the setting of metastatic disease, a consistent component of treatment in RCC patients has been cytoreductive nephrectomy based on the results of research carried out over a decade ago. Despite huge shifts in systemic treatment modalities, cytoreductive nephrectomy continued to be recommended despite a lack of evidence for its use in metastatic RCC in those patients receiving state-of-the-art therapies.

The evolving role of PD-L1 testing in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) pathway improve clinical outcomes in patients with locally advanced/metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC). PD-L1 complementary or companion diagnostic assays are now available for anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 antibodies and these assays enable testing at diagnosis. The role of PD-L1 testing in UC is, however, the subject of much discussion within the medical community, particularly in light of recent restrictions on recruitment of PD-L1-low patients in clinical trials of atezolizumab and pembrolizumab as first-line therapy, and the European Medicines Agency and US Food and Drug Administration limiting use of these agents as first-line therapy in cisplatin-ineligible patients to those with high PD-L1 expression.

EAU-ESMO Consensus Statements on the Management of Advanced and Variant Bladder Cancer-An International Collaborative Multistakeholder Effort: Under the Auspices of the EAU-ESMO Guidelines Committees.

Background: Although guidelines exist for advanced and variant bladder cancer management, evidence is limited/conflicting in some areas and the optimal approach remains controversial.

Objective: To bring together a large multidisciplinary group of experts to develop consensus statements on controversial topics in bladder cancer management.

Design: A steering committee compiled proposed statements regarding advanced and variant bladder cancer management which were assessed by 113 experts in a Delphi survey.

Ramucirumab plus docetaxel versus placebo plus docetaxel in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma after platinum-based therapy (RANGE): overall survival and updated results of a randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial.

Background: Ramucirumab-an IgG1 vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 antagonist-plus docetaxel was previously reported to improve progression-free survival in platinum-refractory, advanced urothelial carcinoma. Here, we report the secondary endpoint of overall survival results for the RANGE trial.

Methods: We did a randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial in patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who progressed during or after platinum-based chemotherapy.

EAU-ESMO consensus statements on the management of advanced and variant bladder cancer-an international collaborative multi-stakeholder effort: under the auspices of the EAU and ESMO Guidelines Committees†.

Background: Although guidelines exist for advanced and variant bladder cancer management, evidence is limited/conflicting in some areas and the optimal approach remains controversial.

Objective: To bring together a large multidisciplinary group of experts to develop consensus statements on controversial topics in bladder cancer management.

Design: A steering committee compiled proposed statements regarding advanced and variant bladder cancer management which were assessed by 113 experts in a Delphi survey.

PRISM protocol: a randomised phase II trial of nivolumab in combination with alternatively scheduled ipilimumab in first-line treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Background: The combination of nivolumab, a programmed death-1 (PD-1) targeted monoclonal antibody, with the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) targeted antibody, ipilimumab, represents a new standard of care in the first-line setting for patients with intermediate- and poor-risk metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) based on recent phase III data. Combining ipilimumab with nivolumab increases rates of grade 3 and 4 toxicity compared with nivolumab alone, and the optimal scheduling of these agents when used together remains unknown. The aim of the PRISM study is to assess whether less frequent dosing of ipilimumab (12-weekly versus 3-weekly), in combination with nivolumab, is associated with a favourable toxicity profile without adversely impacting efficacy.

Clinical outcome after progressing to frontline and second-line Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 in advanced urothelial cancer.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are approved for first-line (cisplatin unfit, PD-L1+) and platinum-refractory urothelial carcinoma (UC). Still, most patients experience progressive disease (PD) as the best response. Although higher response rates to subsequent systemic treatment (SST) have been described, post-PD outcome data are scarce.

Clinical efficacy and biomarker analysis of neoadjuvant atezolizumab in operable urothelial carcinoma in the ABACUS trial.

Antibodies targeting PD-1 or its ligand 1 PD-L1 such as atezolizumab, have great efficacy in a proportion of metastatic urothelial cancers. Biomarkers may facilitate identification of these responding tumors. Neoadjuvant use of these agents is associated with pathological complete response in a spectrum of tumors, including urothelial cancer.

Cytoreductive nephrectomy in the current treatment algorithm.

The two recent prospective randomized trials CARMENA and SURTIME have changed the therapy paradigm of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The CARMENA trial was conducted to investigate whether cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) is required in the targeted therapy area, whereas SURTIME studied whether deferred CN in combination with sunitinib can be used to identify patients with inherent targeted therapy resistance. In the current review, we provide a comprehensive discussion of two randomized studies and the current evidence with up-do-date algorithms for treating primary metastatic clear-cell renal cell carcinoma in the era of targeted therapy and immune-checkpoint inhibition.

A Consensus Molecular Classification of Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer.

Background: Muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is a molecularly diverse disease with heterogeneous clinical outcomes. Several molecular classifications have been proposed, but the diversity of their subtype sets impedes their clinical application.

Objective: To achieve an international consensus on MIBC molecular subtypes that reconciles the published classification schemes.

Nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus sunitinib in first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma: extended follow-up of efficacy and safety results from a randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial.

Background: In the ongoing phase 3 CheckMate 214 trial, nivolumab plus ipilimumab showed superior efficacy over sunitinib in patients with previously untreated intermediate-risk or poor-risk advanced renal cell carcinoma, with a manageable safety profile. In this study, we aimed to assess efficacy and safety after extended follow-up to inform the long-term clinical benefit of nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus sunitinib in this setting.

Methods: In the phase 3, randomised, controlled CheckMate 214 trial, patients aged 18 years and older with previously untreated, advanced, or metastatic histologically confirmed renal cell carcinoma with a clear-cell component were recruited from 175 hospitals and cancer centres in 28 countries.

Incidence, Patterns, and Outcomes with Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Residual Disease After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Muscle-invasive Urinary Tract Cancers.

Background: Patients with residual muscle-invasive urinary tract cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) have a high risk of recurrence.

Objective: To retrospectively evaluate whether additional adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) improves outcomes compared with surveillance in patients with significant residual disease despite NAC.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We identified 474 patients who received NAC from the Retrospective International Study of Cancers of the Urothelium database, of whom 129 had adverse residual disease (≥ypT3 and/or ypN).

Sequencing and Combination of Systemic Therapy in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Context: Introduction of additional new agents targeting the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has completely modified the systemic treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) during the last years.

Objective: A comprehensive (nonsystematic) review to determine the suggested sequence or combinations for the systemic treatment of mRCC.

Evidence Acquisition: PubMed and abstracts from main conferences up to December 2018 were reviewed to retrieve the current evidence for treatment of mRCC.

PD-L1 Expression and Clinical Outcomes to Cabozantinib, Everolimus, and Sunitinib in Patients with Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: Analysis of the Randomized Clinical Trials METEOR and CABOSUN.

Purpose: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) status by IHC is prognostic in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), and its role as a potential predictive biomarker is under investigation. Using tumor tissue from the METEOR (NCT01865747) and CABOSUN (NCT01835158) clinical trials, we explored whether PD-L1 expression and the extent of the immune cell infiltrate can serve as prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers for cabozantinib and other targeted agents.

Experimental Design: IHC double staining for PD-L1 and CD45/CD163 (immune cell markers) was performed on tumor tissue from METEOR ( = 306) and CABOSUN ( = 110) clinical trials.

Molecular and histopathology directed therapy for advanced bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer is a heterogeneous group of tumours with at least 40 histological subgroups. Patients with localized disease can be cured with surgical resection or radiotherapy, but such curative options are limited in the setting of recurrent disease or distant spread, in which case systemic therapy is used to control disease and palliate symptoms. Cytotoxic chemotherapy has been the mainstay of treatment for advanced bladder cancer, but high-quality evidence is lacking to inform the management of rare subgroups that are often excluded from studies.

Genomic and Transcriptomic Determinants of Therapy Resistance and Immune Landscape Evolution during Anti-EGFR Treatment in Colorectal Cancer.

Despite biomarker stratification, the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab is only effective against a subgroup of colorectal cancers (CRCs). This genomic and transcriptomic analysis of the cetuximab resistance landscape in 35 RAS wild-type CRCs identified associations of NF1 and non-canonical RAS/RAF aberrations with primary resistance and validated transcriptomic CRC subtypes as non-genetic predictors of benefit. Sixty-four percent of biopsies with acquired resistance harbored no genetic resistance drivers.

Safe Use of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in the Multidisciplinary Management of Urological Cancer: The European Association of Urology Position in 2019.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are now used routinely to treat advanced or metastatic urothelial and renal cell carcinoma, among other cancers. Furthermore, multiple trials are currently exploring their role in adjuvant, neoadjuvant, and noninvasive (eg, high-grade non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer) settings. Consequently, urologists are increasingly confronted with patients who are on, have recently received, or will be treated with ICI therapy.