Urinary Bladder Tumor clinical trials at UCSF

This study will test an experimental drug (enfortumab vedotin) alone and with different combinations of anticancer therapies. Pembrolizumab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) that is used to treat patients with cancer of the urinary system (urothelial cancer). This type of cancer includes cancer of the bladder, renal pelvis, ureter or urethra. Some parts of the study will look at locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer (la/mUC), which means the cancer has spread to nearby tissues or to other areas of the body. Other parts of the study will look at muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), which is cancer at an earlier stage that has spread into the muscle wall of the bladder. This study will look at the side effects of enfortumab vedotin alone and with other anticancer therapies. A side effect is a response to a drug that is not part of the treatment effect. This study will also test if the cancer shrinks with the different treatment combinations.

The purpose of this study is to assess the antitumor efficacy and safety of perioperative enfortumab vedotin (EV) plus pembrolizumab and radical cystectomy (RC) + pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) compared with the current standard of care (neoadjuvant chemotherapy [gemcitabine plus cisplatin] and RC + PLND) for participants with MIBC who are cisplatin-eligible. The primary hypothesis is perioperative EV and pembrolizumab and RC + PLND (Arm A) will achieve superior event free survival (EFS) compared with neoadjuvant gemcitabine + cisplatin and RC + PLND (Arm B).

RATIONALE: Lymphadenectomy may remove tumor cells that have spread to nearby lymph nodes in patients with invasive bladder cancer. It is not yet known whether extended pelvic lymphadenectomy is more effective than standard pelvic lymphadenectomy during surgery. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying standard pelvic lymphadenectomy to see how well it works compared to extended pelvic lymphadenectomy in treating patients undergoing surgery for invasive bladder cancer.

Voided urinary cytology (VUC) is the most widely used urine-based assay for detecting bladder cancer (BCa); however, it fails to detect approximately 50% of low-grade or early stage BCa when it is most curable. Furthermore, the detection rate of VUC for recurrent BCa is not much better. Because of this severe limitation, all patients who are under surveillance to monitor for recurrent BCa must undergo an invasive examination of the urinary bladder, where a miniature camera is inserted into the bladder and the bladder inspected (cystoscopy). We propose to improve the non-invasive detection of recurrent BCa by further validating a multiplex ELISA assay directed at a BCa-associated diagnostic signature in voided urine samples.