Spotlight on atezolizumab and its potential in the treatment of advanced urothelial bladder cancer

Abstract

Ahmet Murat Aydin,1,* Solomon L Woldu,1,* Ryan C Hutchinson,1 Martin Boegemann,2 Aditya Bagrodia,1 Yair Lotan,1 Vitaly Margulis,1 Laura-Maria Krabbe1,2 1Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; 2Department of Urology, University of Münster Medical Center, Münster, Germany *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Metastatic urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is an aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis, reflecting a lack of effective systemic therapies. The current standard of care includes multiagent platinum-based chemotherapy; however a majority of patients do not respond to treatment and most eventually succumb to disease. Recently, renewed interest in immunotherapy in the form of immune-checkpoint inhibition has gained widespread attention for a number of malignancies. Atezolizumab, an anti-PDL1 antibody, has been shown to be effective in a subset of patients previously treated with or unfit for platinum-based chemotherapy, and has shown durable responses with a good tolerability profile. We review the mechanism of action and clinical evidence of atezolizumab for metastatic urothelial bladder cancer, and discuss this drug within the context of ongoing developments in this dynamic field of immunooncology. Keywords: atezolizumab, MPDL3280A, bladder cancer, PDL1, immunotherapy, metastatic

Keywords

• atezolizumab
• MPDL3280A
• bladder cancer
• PD-L1
• immunotherapy
• metastatic