Advances in Treating Upper Tract Urothelial Cancer
Seth P. Lerner, MD, Professor of Urology and holder of the Beth and Dave Swalm Chair in Urologic Oncology in the Scott Department of Urology at Baylor College of Medicine, discusses developments in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) treatment. He delivers a rationale for adjuvant therapy based on a lack of clinical staging accuracy, a lack of high-level evidence to support perioperative systemic therapy, the perceived benefit in cases of high-risk bladder cancer, and the ability of pathologic staging to identify patients most likely to benefit. He then reviews the POUT trial of adjuvant chemotherapy, noting that it found a statistically significant benefit in disease-free survival and metastasis-free survival. Dr. Lerner continues by summarizing guideline statements. The EAU statement recommends perioperative chemo to patients with muscle invasive UTUC. ICUD states that it is unknown if adjuvant chemotherapy or waiting for the development of clinically evident disease is better. The French ccAFU recommends adjuvant chemotherapy after radical nephroureterectomy in pT2-T4 N0-3 M0 disease. Dr. Lerner then discusses neoadjuvant therapy, which studies suggest is beneficial to patients with optimized renal function. A Hopkins study specifically displayed a pathologic complete response of 9.4%, while the EA8141 trial found a total pathologic complete response of 13.8%. Dr. Lerner continues with a review of management options for low-grade UTUC, a rare disease with limited treatment options. He posits that a kidney-sparing treatment option is needed for patients, as there is a high chance of recurrence and kidney damage with the treatments currently available. Dr. Lerner theorizes that if durability of complete response following ablation with UGN-101 is demonstrated, this could provide a potential new kidney-sparing treatment for patients with low-grade UTUC. Dr. Lerner concludes with a discussion of the OLYMPUS study on UGN-101, which found a complete response in 59% of patients.
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