New York, NY (May 14, 2022) — Immunotherapy after surgery helped reduce cancer recurrence in patients with urothelial cancer of the bladder or other sites in the urinary tract that had invaded the muscle and therefore posed a high risk for recurrence, according to clinical trial results presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) annual meeting in May.
The results support giving the immunotherapy nivolumab as an adjuvant treatment—a therapy given after surgery—as standard of care for patients who have muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma. About 700 patients participated in the phase 3, randomized, double-blind trial, named CheckMate 274; half were given nivolumab and the other half placebo after having surgery with chemotherapy beforehand.
“Longer-term follow-up data is important for reinforcing the initial results we published last year demonstrating for the first time that immunotherapy administered after surgery for bladder cancer and other urothelial cancer can decrease the risk of cancer recurrence,” said lead author and presenter Matthew Galsky, MD, Director of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center. “Almost 200,000 people die each year of urothelial cancer worldwide, so advances like immunotherapy being used in this manner bring hope.”
Surgery that removes the bladder or kidney and ureter has been the standard of care for patients with urothelial cancer that has entered surrounding muscle or lymph nodes, but approximately half of these patients later relapse with lethal metastatic cancer. Unfortunately for these patients, no consensus has emerged regarding treatments after surgery that might reduce the risk of cancer recurrence, which is why the results presented at AUA are important.
In CheckMate 274, with a minimum of 11 months follow-up, patients who received nivolumab had an approximately 30 percent lower likelihood of developing cancer recurrence than those who received placebo. Patients whose tumors had the gene PD-L1, making them more responsive to nivolumab’s cancer-fighting ability, and who received the immunotherapy had cancer-free rates that were even higher.
This longer-term disease-free survival data presented at AUA built upon initial data presented by Dr. Galsky and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine. Follow-up with patients on this trial, which was funded by Bristol Myers Squibb, is ongoing.
About Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals, receiving high “Honor Roll” status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital among the country’s best in 4 out of 10 pediatric specialties. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: It is consistently ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Medical Schools,” aligned with a U.S. News & World Report “Honor Roll” Hospital, and top 20 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding and top 5 in the nation for numerous basic and clinical research areas. Newsweek’s “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals” ranks The Mount Sinai Hospital as No. 1 in New York and in the top five globally, and Mount Sinai Morningside in the top 20 globally.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
