ASCO 2025 | Immunotherapy approaches show promise for treatment-refractory genitourinary cancers
Michael Serzan, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, comments on the value of novel immunotherapy approaches in genitourinary malignancies, highlighting the success of combining immunotherapies with targeted therapies in kidney and bladder cancers. Dr Serzan notes that these combinations have led to the development of four approved frontline regimens for kidney cancer and have shown benefits in the adjuvant setting, with ongoing data supporting the use of immunotherapy in both kidney and bladder cancer. This interview took place during the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Meeting in Chicago, IL.
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Transcript
Immunotherapy has been very effective, especially in kidney and bladder cancers. We’ve seen that the most success that we have is when we either combine immunotherapies with targeted therapies. So in kidney cancer, we’ve seen immunotherapy with VEGF TKI therapy. We now have four approved frontline regimens using that combination of anti-PD-1 and VEGF therapy...
Immunotherapy has been very effective, especially in kidney and bladder cancers. We’ve seen that the most success that we have is when we either combine immunotherapies with targeted therapies. So in kidney cancer, we’ve seen immunotherapy with VEGF TKI therapy. We now have four approved frontline regimens using that combination of anti-PD-1 and VEGF therapy. We’ve also seen that immunotherapy has been successful in the adjuvant setting. We have the Keynote 564 study in clear cell kidney cancer, which showed a benefit of giving adjuvant pembrolizumab over placebo. Here at ASCO 2023, we’re actually seeing a five-year follow-up of that data, which continues to mature, continues to show DFS benefit. So I think both in combination and in the adjuvant setting in kidney cancer. And then when we look to bladder cancer, we see a very similar story. So we see when we combine anti-PD-1 therapy, pembrolizumab with the antibody drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin, we see enhanced benefit of that combination leading to its FDA approval in the frontline setting versus the previous standard of care of chemotherapy. We also have approvals of immunotherapy in the adjuvant setting for bladder cancer with nivolumab on the Checkmate 274 study. So in general, I think immunotherapy seems to work best if we use it earlier and if we use it in combination in kidney and bladder cancer.
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