The State of Advanced Bladder Cancer - New Data from AACR 2018 - Interview with Arjun Balar

May 4, 2018

(Length of Discussion: 30 min)

Arjun Balar, MD overviews his presentation from the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (AACR 2018) meeting on durvalumab plus tremelimumab, combination data in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer.  A phase I, Study 10, of data which shows clinical activity with combination treatment in 2nd-line metastatic urothelial carcinoma.  A study designed to answer what tremelimumab adds to durvalumab monotherapy and can we improve responses and durability of responses.  This was a  follow-up study to the Safety and Efficacy of durvalumab (MEDI4736), an Anti-Programmed Cell Death Ligand-1 Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor, in Patients With Advanced Urothelial Bladder Cancer study which gained Durvalumab accelerated approval for platinum-refractory metastatic urothelial cancer.

The second study discussed in this conversation is A Phase 1 Study to Evaluate the Safety and Tolerability of Anti-PD-L1, MEDI4736, in Combination with Tremelimumab in Subjects with Advanced Solid Tumors,
This is a multicenter, open-label, study with a standard 3+3 dose-escalation phase, followed by an expansion phase in subjects with solid tumors.   Andrea Necchi, MD of Italy presented the Interim safety and efficacy analysis of the first 36 patients enrolled at the AACR 2018. 


Biographies:
Arjun Balar, MD is the director of the genitourinary medical oncology program at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. Dr. Balar's research focuses on bladder cancer and immunotherapy—treatments that harness the body’s own immune system to fight cancer—as well as molecularly-targeted therapy. He has extensive experience treating prostate, testicular, and kidney cancers and leads a team of medical oncologists, nurse practitioners, social workers, and other care providers who are dedicated to treating people who have genitourinary cancers.

Alicia Morgans, MD