GU Cancers 2026 | Cretostimogene and durable immune response in bladder cancer
Siamak Daneshmand, MD, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, discusses the dual mechanism of action of cretostimogene grenadenorepvec, which involves lysing cancer cells and eliciting an immune response, particularly in bladder cancer with Rb-E2F pathway alterations. A long-lasting immune response is possible with this novel therapy but maintenance therapy, similar to BCG, will be important in achieving optimal treatment outcomes. This interview took place at the 2026 ASCO GU Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, CA.
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Transcript
Yeah, so first of all, the dual mechanism of action may have something to do with a sort of tail end of the good results that we’ve seen in the previous cohorts, the CIS, with or without papillary disease. So the dual mechanism is that you’re getting lysis of the cells and eliciting the immune responses, targets that Rb E2F pathway alterations in the cells, which are seen in the bladder cancer...
Yeah, so first of all, the dual mechanism of action may have something to do with a sort of tail end of the good results that we’ve seen in the previous cohorts, the CIS, with or without papillary disease. So the dual mechanism is that you’re getting lysis of the cells and eliciting the immune responses, targets that Rb E2F pathway alterations in the cells, which are seen in the bladder cancer. But it not only lyses the cells, but also as a transgene for GM-CSF, which elicits again an immune response that may be longer lasting than what we’ve seen in the cytotoxics. So I think we’re going to see this concept more and more of getting an immune response that is long lasting. The maintenance is probably important as we see with BCG. BCG is a form of immunotherapy, of course. And time and time again, we’ve seen that maintenance therapy is important with these drugs. Of course, that’s sort of part of all the drug regimens now, getting maintenance therapies out to two, even three years. But no question, this is a novel mechanism of action and certainly adds to our armamentarium of the treatment options we have available for these patients.
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