Dr. Singh on Research With Antibody-Drug Conjugates in Advanced Bladder Cancer

Parminder Singh, MD, hematologist/oncologist, Mayo Clinic, discusses research being done with antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in advanced bladder cancer.

The majority of patients who receive a checkpoint inhibitor will progress, says Singh. In general, the response rate among all checkpoint inhibitors is approximately 15% to 20%. This has left a large unmet need and has prompted research with ADCs, such as enfortumab vedotin and sacituzumab govitecan, adds Singh. There are several ongoing trials with these agents.

Data with enfortumab vedotin, which were presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, showed a significant response rate of approximately 44% in patients who had received prior immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Up to 12% of patients achieved a complete response, which is very promising among a pretreated patient population. Singh anticipates that the agent will move forward and become a definitive therapeutic option for this patient population. In July 2019, a biologics license application was submitted to the FDA for the agent for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor and platinum-based chemotherapy.