Improving Biomarker Discovery and Development in Urothelial Carcinoma

Petros Grivas, MD, PhD, physician, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance; associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, and clinical director, Genitourinary Cancers Program, University of Washington School of Medicine; and associate member, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, discusses the challenge with biomarker discovery currently in the treatment landscape of urothelial carcinoma.

The current challenge is that there are multiple different biomarkers, different assays, and different scoring algorithms being used in clinical trials, Grivas says. This makes biomarker discovery a great exercise, and we continue to discover more biomarkers. However, the challenge is with biomarker validation.

Grivas says whether to lock down biomarker assays could be prospectively validated to evaluate clinical utility of certain biomarkers. In the future, a feasible reproducible biomarker is needed to be used in prospective studies. The data presented at ESMO provide researchers with more knowledge to move the field forward.