Positive Response to New Treatment in Patients with Urothelial Cancer

1. Positive Response to New
Treatment in Patients with
Urothelial Cancer
By: Natasha Tiffany MD

2. Positive Response to New Treatment in Patients
with Urothelial Cancer
A physician in Salem, Oregon, Natasha Tiffany, MD, practices at Oregon Oncology Specialists.
She has been a partner at the facility since 2005 and is responsible for providing high-quality
cancer care to patients. Active in the professional community, Natasha Tiffany, MD, belongs to
several organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), an
organization committed to curing cancer through education and research.

3. Positive Response to New Treatment in Patients
with Urothelial Cancer
At the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, the results of a new study on an antibody treatment for
urothelial cancer were shared. Urothelial cancer includes cancer of the renal pelvis, urethra,
bladder, ureters, and other nearby organs, and is most commonly seen in men in the United
States. It’s believed that roughly 80,400 new cases of these cancers will be diagnosed in 2019,
and the disease will cause about 17,670 deaths during that year.

4. Positive Response to New Treatment in Patients
with Urothelial Cancer
The current research was a phase II clinical trial of enfortumab vedotin (EV), a treatment agent that
targets the Nectin-4 protein. This protein is found in 97 percent of urothelial cancers. For the trial,
investigators enrolled 125 patients who had been treated with checkpoint inhibitors, platinum-
based chemotherapy, or both. These patients were treated with EV, and 44 percent of those with
locally advanced metastatic forms of the disease responded well to the treatment.

5. Positive Response to New Treatment in Patients
with Urothelial Cancer
In addition, researchers noted that 41 percent of patients who had not responded to checkpoint
inhibitor treatment responded to EV. Another 38 percent of people with urothelial cancer that had
spread to the liver responded positively to the treatment. Additional research is needed before the
treatment is made more readily available, and researchers are in the process of completing a
phase III study of EV.