Lindsay Diamond Discusses Ongoing Role of Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer

In this episode of The Vitals, Lindsay Diamond, MSN, AGNP-C, AOCNP, spoke on updated data from the CheckMate 274 trial (NCT02632409), which were presented during the 2023 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), and commented on different trials paving the way in urothelial carcinoma.

According to Diamond, who is a nurse practitioner and clinical program manager of the GU Oncology Clinical Trials Department at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the disease-free survival (DFS) outcomes from Checkmate 274 were very promising, as they signify that adjuvant treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) may be able to help patients reach certain milestones. This trial showed that at a median follow-up of 36.1 months, the median DFS with adjuvant nivolumab was 52.5 months vs 8.4 months with placebo in the PD-L1 population (1% or greater). Moreover, in the intention-to-treat population, the median DFS were 22.0 vs 10.9 months, respectively.¹

Adjuvant nivolumab was approved for patients with urothelial carcinoma who are at high risk of recurrence after radical resection based on earlier data from CheckMate 274.²

Moving forward, she hopes to continue to see positive readouts from this trial, as well as more research in bladder-sparing treatment approaches and better tumor markers to help patients track their diseases responses to treatment.

Interested in learning more from the meeting? Check out our coverage of 2023 ASCO GU here.

We want to hear from you! Which ASCO GU data do you think will be practice-changing?

Email lfischer@mjhlifesciences.com with your feedback.

Episode Notes:

There is this mentality when patients have localized disease, of ‘well, it’s not metastatic and you had it removed so you’re fine,’ but those patients still live with cancer every day of their life after that surgery and it’s a waiting game. Time stamp (TS) 3:05

We, as providers, know that 30% of patients or so could have a serious immune-related adverse effect from immunotherapy, but the majority of patients are going to do fine on it. TS 5:07

Generally, clinical trials looking at bladder sparing approaches [are important], whether it’s our study HCRN GU16-257 [NCT03558087]—that looks at chemotherapy and immunotherapy—or other trials that look at just chemotherapy. TS 6:41

Oncology Nursing News® Online Articles

• CheckMate 274 Follow-Up Supports the Use of Adjuvant Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer
• Pembrolizumab Shows Antitumor Activity at 45-Month Follow-Up in BCG-Unresponsive Papillary NMIBC
• Real-World Data Supports Front-Line Maintenance With Avelumab For Locally Advanced, Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma
• Neoadjuvant Split-Dose Chemotherapy Represents Potential New Standard of Care for High-Risk UTUC
• Maximizing Potential of Immunotherapy Requires Appropriate irAE Management

Video Interviews

• Laura Wood on the Integration of Avelumab, Erdafitinib, and Enfortumab Vedotin into Urothelial Cancer Care
• Predicting Immunotherapy Response in Bladder Cancer

The Vitals Podcast

• Chemo Cheat Sheets Help Nurses During Drug Delivery
• A Look Back at 2022 FDA Approvals in Oncology

References

1. Galsky M, Witjes JA, Gschwend J, et al. Extended follow-up results from the CheckMate 274 trial. J Clin Oncol. 2023;41(suppl 6):LBA443. doi:10.1200/JCO.2023.41.6_suppl.LBA443
2. FDA approves nivolumab for adjuvant treatment of urothelial carcinoma. FDA. News release. August 19, 2021. Accessed April 3, 2023. https://bit.ly/3ztbkfm