Summary Background Patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma have a dismal prognosis and few treatment options after first-line chemotherapy. Responses to second-line treatment are uncommon. We ...assessed nivolumab, a fully human IgG4 PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor antibody, for safety and activity in patients with metastatic or surgically unresectable urothelial carcinoma whose disease progressed or recurred despite previous treatment with at least one platinum-based chemotherapy regimen. Methods In this multicentre, phase 2, single-arm study, patients aged 18 years or older with metastatic or surgically unresectable locally advanced urothelial carcinoma, measurable disease (according to Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors v1.1), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance statuses of 0 or 1, and available tumour samples for biomarker analysis received nivolumab 3 mg/kg intravenously every 2 weeks until disease progression and clinical deterioration, unacceptable toxicity, or other protocol-defined reasons. The primary endpoint was overall objective response confirmed by blinded independent review committee in all treated patients and by tumour PD-L1 expression (≥5% and ≥1%). This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT02387996 , and is completed. Follow-up is still ongoing. Findings Between March 9, 2015, and Oct 16, 2015, 270 patients from 63 sites in 11 countries received nivolumab, and 265 were evaluated for activity. Median follow-up for overall survival was 7·00 months (IQR 2·96–8·77). Confirmed objective response was achieved in 52 (19·6%, 95% CI 15·0–24·9) of 265 patients. Confirmed objective response was achieved in 23 (28·4%, 95% CI 18·9–39·5) of the 81 patients with PD-L1 expression of 5% or greater, 29 (23·8%, 95% CI 16·5–32·3) of the 122 patients with PD-L1 expression of 1% or greater, and 23 (16·1%, 95% CI 10·5–23·1) of the 143 patients with PD-L1 expression of less than 1%. Grade 3–4 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 48 (18%) of 270 patients—most commonly grade 3 fatigue and diarrhoea, which each occurred in five patients. Three deaths were attributed to treatment (pneumonitis, acute respiratory failure, and cardiovascular failure). Interpretation Nivolumab monotherapy provided meaningful clinical benefit, irrespective of PD-L1 expression, and was associated with an acceptable safety profile in previously treated patients with metastatic or surgically unresectable urothelial carcinoma. Funding Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Summary Urachal carcinoma is a rare tumor that has not been well studied. To determine the pathologic and clinical features of this disease, we retrospectively evaluated 46 cases from our surgical ...pathology files. The patients included 16 women and 30 men, with a mean age of 53.4 years (range, 28-82 years). Forty patients had undergone cystectomy, and the remaining 6 had undergone transurethral bladder biopsy. Most tumors were located at the dome (n = 44); only 2 were located at both the dome and anterior wall. All tumors consisted of adenocarcinoma, including mucinous (n = 36), enteric (n = 7), not otherwise specified (n = 2), and signet ring cell (n = 1) types. Focal areas of signet ring cell features were present in 23 cases, but urothelial carcinoma in situ was not identified in any cases. The tumors invaded the muscularis propria (n = 8), perivesical adipose tissue (n = 27), and abdominal wall (n = 3). Twenty-five patients had died of cancer at a mean of 32 months (range, 12-74 months), and 21 patients were alive at a mean of 65 months (range, 7-230 months). The median cancer-specific survival time of urachal adenocarcinoma patients was 45 months, which was significantly longer than that of bladder urothelial carcinoma patients with similar-stage disease ( P = .047). Patients' cancer-specific survival was associated with tumor stage according to the Sheldon, Mayo, and TNM staging systems. In conclusion, urachal carcinomas are predominantly composed of invasive adenocarcinomas, which commonly demonstrate mucinous features. Most tumors present at advanced stages but are still associated with a better survival rate than bladder urothelial carcinomas.
Recent studies revealed that muscle-invasive bladder cancers segregate into intrinsic basal and luminal subtypes that are similar to those described for breast cancer. Each subtype is enriched with ...potentially clinically actionable genomic alterations and epigenetic signatures; there are associations between tumor subtype and sensitivity to conventional cisplatin-based chemotherapy. The authors review biological and clinical characteristics of the intrinsic subtypes and describe their implications for the development of conventional and targeted agents. The role that tumor plasticity seems to play in basal and luminal bladder cancer biology and its potential effects on the development of therapeutic resistance is also discussed.
Abstract Urothelial carcinoma can exhibit a wide variety of histopathological phenotypes or variant morphologies, classifications of which have recently been revised in the 2016 WHO Classification of ...Tumours of the Urinary System and Male Genital Organs . Many of these variants not only present diagnostic challenges, but also have clinical implications that affect patient prognosis and treatment strategies. This review will discuss these variant morphologies and their relationship to current understanding of the underlying biology of urothelial carcinoma and molecular classification paradigms.
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