Dr. Tagawa on Sacituzumab Govitecan in Urothelial Carcinoma

Scott T. Tagawa, MD, Richard A. Stratton Associate Professor in Hematology and Oncology, associate professor of clinical medicine & urology at Weill Cornell Medicine, associate attending physician, NewYork-Presbyterian—Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses the use of sacituzumab govitecan in the treatment of patients with urothelial carcinoma.

In a phase II tumor-agnostic study evaluating the use of sacituzumab govitecan, researchers found that the enrolled patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma seemed to derive a greater benefit from the antibody drug conjugate. At the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, Tagawa presented data focusing on these specific patients. Overall, he says, the data were better than what community oncologists would expect from standard chemotherapy or a traditional control arm.

The objective response rate was 31% in these patients compared with what is normally 10% to 12% with standard chemotherapy. The drug was also found to be well tolerated. There were some grade 3 and 4 neutropenia events but very few patients had febrile neutropenia events. The most common grade 3 toxicity was diarrhea, which was observed in 9% of the patients, he adds, but this is probably less than what would be seen with SN-38 or irinotecan.

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