Dr. Steinberg on Treatment Approaches in Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer

Gary D. Steinberg, MD, director, Urologic Oncology, The University of Chicago Medicine, discusses treatment approaches in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

In high-risk NMIBC, many therapies are directly inserted into the bladder. However, Steinberg says intravesical chemotherapy may not be the best means of delivering treatment to patients. There are, however, many trials that are examining better ways of delivering intravesical chemotherapy.

The future will likely rely on more novel mechanisms, such as oncolytic vaccines alone and oncolytic vaccines in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, says Steinberg. One vaccine that is currently being tested is INO-5401, which is a combination of multiple different antigens. It is an injectable DNA vaccine that targets WT1, HTERT, and PSMA. It is also combined with an immune-stimulatory molecule, IL-12, to enable the immune system to recognize these antigens and target the cancer. Studies have shown that DNA vaccines are generally well tolerated and safe.