Dr. Balar on Results of Durvalumab Plus Tremelimumab in Bladder Cancer

Arjun V. Balar, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, director, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Program, NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses the results of a study investigating durvalumab (Imfinzi) plus tremelimumab in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer.

Durvalumab is currently approved as a second-line therapy for patients with platinum-refractory metastatic urothelial cancer. The addition of CTLA-4 blockade with tremelimumab demonstrated benefit while maintaining a manageable safety profile.

At a median follow-up of 11.6 months, the overall response rate was 20.8% for the entire population. Responses based on PD-L1 status were also observed, says Balar. Patients whose tumors were considered PD-L1 high had a response rate of 29% and those who had a low PD-L1 expression had a response rate of 15%. This suggests that responses occurred across PD-L1 subgroups.