Genitourinary Cancer

William C. Huang, MD, discusses the transition from open cystectomy to minimally invasive robotic-assisted surgery in the management of muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Based on findings from the phase III LATITUDE trial, the Food and Drug Adminstration has approved abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) for use in high-risk patients with castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

The year 2017 saw significant advancements in the field of bladder cancer treatment. Five Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for checkpoint inhibitors in both the first and second line setting opened up the immunotherapy landscape, and more develoments are on the way.

Cisplatin, a platinum-based chemotherapy agent that is used to treat testicular cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, bladder cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer and head and neck cancer, has been found to cause a significant amount of hearing loss in patients, according to a recent article published in Nature Communications.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to the combination of pembrolizumab (Keytruda), a PD-1 inhibitor, and lenvatinib (Lenvima), a VEGF/FGF inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with advanced and/or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The FDA has granted a priority review to a new drug application (NDA) for apalutamide (ARN-509) for the treatment of patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Apalutamide is an oral androgen receptor inhibitor.

The FDA approved abozantinib (Cabometyx) for use in previously untreated patients who have advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The FDA has granted a priority review to a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for use of this combination as a frontline treatment for intermediate- and poor-risk patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Adjuvant therapy is associated with high toxicity and most patients will derive no benefit, Umberto Capitanio, MD, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, said in a presentation during the 2017 EMUC Congress. However, adjuvant therapy “might show the highest ratio between clinical benefit and toxicity” in this specific subset of high-risk patients.

“Are there ways that we can optimize the cure rates with HIFU? When are people recurring? What are we missing when they recur? What are the true rates of complications? We do not know the answer to most of these questions,” says Jonathan Warner, MD.

Maria De Santis, MD, associate clinical professor at the University of Warwick, discussed the findings of KEYNOTE-045 and the future of immunotherapy in the treatment landscape of bladder cancer.

The FDA has approved sunitinib (Sutent) for use as an adjuvant therapy in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who have received nephrectomy and are high risk for recurrence.

Radical prostatectomy was not associated with significantly lower all-cause or prostate-cancer mortality than observation.

FDA approval was given to a new regimen of cabazitaxel (Jevtana) to treat men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who previously received a docetaxel-containing regimen. The approval is for 20 mg/m2 every 3 weeks in combination with prednisone. The agency approved a dose of 25 mg/m2 every 3 weeks in this patient population in 2010.

Patients with untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) lived significantly longer without disease progression when they received the multikinase inhibitor cabozantinib (Cabometyx) as initial therapy versus sunitinib (Sutent), according to results of an independent review of the randomized CABOSUN trial reported at the 2017 ESMO Congress in Madrid.

The FDA announced today that it has approved the first biosimilar for the treatment of multiple types of cancer.

Updated United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines on prostate cancer screening were recently published in Cancer.

A patient can experience less pain, a quicker healing time and potentially more normal kidney function, due to the minimally invasive aspect of robotic surgery, according to Ketan K. Badani, M.D.

Bladder cancer is uncommon, and is more often diagnosed at an advanced stage because it has symptoms that mimic other disorders.

For years, people believed that there was a link between vasectomies and prostate cancer.

The risk of developing certain types of cancer can be increased by exposure to work-related stress.

Researchers found that the rate of suicide in patients with lung cancer is much higher than those with other types of cancer.

A recent study looked at the long-term health-related effects of treatment for patients with localized prostate cancer, finding that some can continue for more than 10 years after treatment.

The incidence of prostate cancer is 60% in black men in the US than in white men, and they are twice as likely to die from the disease.

According to findings presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting, earlier intervention with abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) lowered the risk of death by 40% for men with high-risk advanced or metastatic prostate cancer.

The Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) announced the recipients of the 2017 Young Investigator Awards.

A recent study provides more evidence toward the link between electronic cigarette use and bladder cancer risk.

More Stage I cancers were diagnosed after the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, within five screenable disease types: colorectal cancer, female breast cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer).

The FDA has granted approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

The FDA has granted accelerated approval to avelumab (Bavencio) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma.