Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical cystectomy is the standard treatment for cisplatin-eligible patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Adding perioperative immunotherapy may improve outcomes.
In this phase 3, open-label, randomized trial, we assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, cisplatin-eligible patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer to receive neoadjuvant durvalumab plus gemcitabine-cisplatin every 3 weeks for four cycles, followed by radical cystectomy and adjuvant durvalumab every 4 weeks for eight cycles (durvalumab group), or to receive neoadjuvant gemcitabine-cisplatin followed by radical cystectomy alone (comparison group). Event-free survival was one of two primary end points. Overall survival was the key secondary end point.
In total, 533 patients were assigned to the durvalumab group and 530 to the comparison group. The estimated event-free survival at 24 months was 67.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 63.6 to 71.7) in the durvalumab group and 59.8% (95% CI, 55.4 to 64.0) in the comparison group (hazard ratio for progression, recurrence, not undergoing radical cystectomy, or death from any cause, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.82; P<0.001 by stratified log-rank test). The estimated overall survival at 24 months was 82.2% (95% CI, 78.7 to 85.2) in the durvalumab group and 75.2% (95% CI, 71.3 to 78.8) in the comparison group (hazard ratio for death, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.93; P = 0.01 by stratified log-rank test). Treatment-related adverse events of grade 3 or 4 in severity occurred in 40.6% of the patients in the durvalumab group and in 40.9% of those in the comparison group; treatment-related adverse events leading to death occurred in 0.6% in each group. Radical cystectomy was performed in 88.0% of the patients in the durvalumab group and in 83.2% of those in the comparison group.
Perioperative durvalumab plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy led to significant improvements in event-free survival and overall survival as compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone. (Funded by AstraZeneca; NIAGARA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03732677; EudraCT number, 2018-001811-59.).
The New England journal of medicine. 2024 Sep 15 [Epub ahead of print]
Thomas Powles, James W F Catto, Matthew D Galsky, Hikmat Al-Ahmadie, Joshua J Meeks, Hiroyuki Nishiyama, Toan Quang Vu, Lorenzo Antonuzzo, Pawel Wiechno, Vagif Atduev, Ariel G Kann, Tae-Hwan Kim, Cristina Suárez, Chao-Hsiang Chang, Florian Roghmann, Mustafa Özgüroğlu, Bernhard J Eigl, Niara Oliveira, Tomas Buchler, Moran Gadot, Yousef Zakharia, Jon Armstrong, Ashok Gupta, Stephan Hois, Michiel S van der Heijden, NIAGARA Investigators
From Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Barts Health NHS Trust Biomedical Research Centre, London (T.P.), the Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Sheffield, and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield (J.W.F.C.), and AstraZeneca, Cambridge (J.A.) - all in the United Kingdom; the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (M.D.G.), the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (H.A.-A.), and AstraZeneca (A.G.) - all in New York; the Departments of Urology and Biochemistry, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago (J.J.M.); the University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan (H.N.); Internal Medical 3, Vietnam National Cancer Hospital, Hanoi (T.Q.V.); the Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, and the Medical Oncology Unit, Careggi University Hospital - both in Florence, Italy (L.A.); Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland (P.W.); the Volga District Medical Center, Federal Medical-Biological Agency, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia (V.A.); Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, Sao Paulo (A.G.K.); the Department of Urology, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, South Korea (T-H.K.); Medical Oncology, Vall d´Hebron Institute of Oncology, Hospital Universitari Vall d´Hebron, Vall d´Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Barcelona (C.S.); the Department of Urology, China Medical University Hospital and School of Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan (C-H.C.); the Department of Urology, Marien Hospital Herne, Ruhr University Bochum, Herne, Germany (F.R.); Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Cerrahpaşa School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey (M.Ö.); BC Cancer-Vancouver, Vancouver, BC, Canada (B.J.E.); Mater Hospital Brisbane, Mater Misericordiae, and the School of Clinical Medicine, Mater Clinical Unit, University of Queensland - both in Brisbane, Australia (N.O.); the Department of Oncology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Thomayer Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic (T.B.); the Institute of Oncology, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv - both in Israel (M.G.); the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, Iowa City (Y.Z.); AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD (S.H.); and the Department of Medical Oncology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam (M.S.H.).