Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Nov 4;14(21):5431.
doi: 10.3390/cancers14215431.

Targeted Therapies in Advanced and Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma

Andrew B Katims  1 , Peter A Reisz  1 , Lucas Nogueira  1 , Hong Truong  1 , Andrew T Lenis  1 , Eugene J Pietzak  1 , Kwanghee Kim  2 , Jonathan A Coleman  1
Affiliations
Review

Targeted Therapies in Advanced and Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma

Andrew B Katims et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

This review describes the current landscape of targeted therapies in urothelial carcinoma. The standard of care for advanced urothelial carcinoma patients remains platinum-based combination chemotherapy followed by immunotherapy. However, median overall survival for these patients is still <1 year and there is an urgent need for alternative therapies. The advent of next-generation sequencing has allowed widespread comprehensive molecular characterization of urothelial tumors and, subsequently, the development of therapies targeting specific molecular pathways implicated in carcinogenesis such as FGFR inhibition, Nectin-4, Trop-2, and HER2 targeting. As these therapies are demonstrated to be effective in the second-line setting, they will be advanced in the treatment paradigm to localized and even non-muscle invasive disease.

Keywords: antibody-drug conjugates; antineoplastic therapy; immunotherapy; metastatic urothelial carcinoma; molecular targeted therapy; monoclonal antibodies; next-generation sequencing; tumor biomarkers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mutational landscape of muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma [17].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Summary of consensus classes and their unique features [18].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overview of cell signaling pathway and targets of novel therapy. Created with BioRender.com (accessed on 18 October 2022).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Yagoda A. Chemotherapy of Urothelial Tract Tumors. Cancer. 1987;60:574–585. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19870801)60:3+<574::AID-CNCR2820601524>3.0.CO;2-C. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sternberg C.N., De Mulder P.H., Schornagel J.H., Théodore C., Fossa S.D., Van Oosterom A.T., Witjes F., Spina M., Van Groeningen C.J., De Balincourt C., et al. Randomized Phase III Trial of High–Dose-Intensity Methotrexate, Vinblastine, Doxorubicin, and Cisplatin (MVAC) Chemotherapy and Recombinant Human Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor Versus Classic MVAC in Advanced Urothelial Tract Tumors: European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Protocol No. 30924. J. Clin. Oncol. 2001;19:2638–2646. doi: 10.1200/jco.2001.19.10.2638. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Von Der Maase H., Hansen S.W., Roberts J.T., Dogliotti L., Oliver T., Moore M.J., Bodrogi I., Albers P., Knuth A., Lippert C.M., et al. Gemcitabine and Cisplatin Versus Methotrexate, Vinblastine, Doxorubicin, and Cisplatin in Advanced or Metastatic Bladder Cancer: Results of a Large, Randomized, Multinational, Multicenter, Phase III Study. J. Clin. Oncol. 2000;18:3068–3077. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2000.18.17.3068. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Von Der Maase H., Sengelov L., Roberts J.T., Ricci S., Dogliotti L., Oliver T., Moore M.J., Zimmermann A., Arning M. Long-Term Survival Results of a Randomized Trial Comparing Gemcitabine Plus Cisplatin, With Methotrexate, Vinblastine, Doxorubicin, Plus Cisplatin in Patients with Bladder Cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 2005;23:4602–4608. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2005.07.757. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Seront E., Machiels J.-P. Molecular biology and targeted therapies for urothelial carcinoma. Cancer Treat. Rev. 2015;41:341–353. doi: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2015.03.004. - DOI - PubMed