Dr. Sonpavde on the Potential for Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer

Guru P. Sonpavde, MD, director, Bladder Cancer, and physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the potential for neoadjuvant immunotherapy in bladder cancer.

There are ongoing trials combining cisplatin-based regimens with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in the neoadjuvant setting, Sonpavde says. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is involved in a phase III study comparing gemcitabine plus cisplatin versus gemcitabine and cisplatin plus nivolumab (Opdivo). Notably, researchers planned a third arm combining the chemotherapy regimen plus nivolumab plus an IDO1 inhibitor.

Sonpavde says that the addition of an IDO1 inhibitor enhances the immune state by inhibiting the IDO1 enzyme. Researchers will await results from this phase III study and other ongoing studies in the cisplatin-eligible and -ineligible space. In cisplatin-ineligible patients, researchers are examining immunotherapy alone in the neoadjuvant setting.