Examining the Impact of Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer
Joaquim Bellmunt, MD, PhD, discusses the impact of immunotherapy compared to chemotherapy as treatment of patients with bladder cancer.
Joaquim Bellmunt, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, director, Bladder Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the impact of immunotherapy compared to chemotherapy as a treatment for patients with bladder cancer.
Initially, experts thought immunotherapy would replace chemotherapy, but only a small percentage of patients with metastatic bladder cancer, for example, have shown benefit with immunotherapy. This leaves room for improvement, Bellmunt says.
Chemotherapy in combination with immunotherapy has shown improved outcomes in other cancers such as kidney or lung cancer, Bellmunt says. In the future, he expects combination therapy to beat monotherapy in frontline bladder cancer.
