Dr. Grivas on Biomarker for Pembrolizumab Response in Urothelial Cancer

Petros Grivas, MD, medical oncologist, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, associate professor, University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, discusses searching for biomarkers in patients with urothelial cancer to indicate response to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the KEYNOTE-052 trial.

In this phase II trial, Grivas and his team found that patients with a low Stromal/EMT/TGF-β signature expression in the tumor microenvironment had better signaling and a better response to pembrolizumab.

Likewise, patients with high Stromal/EMT/TGF-β signature expression was associated with resistance to pembrolizumab independently of gene expression profile or PD-L1 expression in patients with urothelial carcinoma.