Dr. Rosenberg on Future Use of Atezolizumab in Bladder Cancer

Jonathan E. Rosenberg, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer, discusses ongoing research of and next steps with atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the treatment of patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

An important question for researchers is to determine whether atezolizumab can be moved to the frontline setting for patients, Rosenberg explains. There is ongoing discussion regarding the design of such a clinical trial. However, a more active and less toxic therapy is desired, although the response rate with atezolizumab is lower than with chemotherapy.

There are also adjuvant studies ongoing with atezolizumab to understand whether recurrence of disease can be prevented with adjuvant treatment. Additionally, there needs to be confirmation of the survival advantage with atezolizumab in patients pretreated with chemotherapy, which researchers will determine from the findings in the phase III IMvigor 210 and the IMvigor 211 studies.