Therapy for Bladder and Kidney Cancers Is Swiftly Improving as Many New Treatments Emerge

UNTIL ONCOLOGISTS ARE ABLE to cure every case of bladder cancer, treatment won’t rise to the level we envision. But the development of therapies for people with the disease is moving in the right direction — and remarkably swiftly.

Until 2016, it had been 30 years since the approval of a new bladder cancer treatment. Since then, the Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to five immunotherapies to treat metastatic disease. All are checkpoint inhibitors, drugs that have generated excitement by showing activity in many cancer types. They disable certain proteins made by the body, freeing up the immune system to recognize and attack cancer.

In an article in this issue of CURE®, we discuss this exciting treatment in bladder cancer. Our article lists the recently approved immunotherapies, explains how they work and who is most likely to benefit from them, and considers how they might be combined with other therapies.

We also delve into the thriving area of treatments for kidney cancer. Twenty targeted drugs and immunotherapies have emerged over the past decade, and treatment questions now revolve around how best to sequence or combine the agents.

Finally, our cover story sheds light on the complexities of treating prostate cancer. In a disease that lacks screening methods and predictors of aggressiveness, it’s important to understand genetic drivers so doctors will know when more radical treatments are called for. As scientists research this, doctors are working with newer hormonal drugs that have become the mainstays of treatment, while the targeted PARP inhibitors already used in ovarian cancer represent a new frontier.

By detailing the latest science guiding the treatment of genitourinary cancers, we hope we have answered your questions and generated others that will shape what you ask your medical team. Along with all these facts, we hope we’ve conveyed a sense of the hope that is growing along with the ever-increasing array of options for treating oncologic diseases. As always, thank you for reading.

MIKE HENNESSY, SR. Chairman and CEO