Advances in the management of urothelial carcinoma: is immunotherapy the answer?

Introduction: Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is the second most common malignancy of the genitourinary system in the US, but mortality rate has not significantly improved despite advances in therapy. Over the past few years, the treatment landscape of non-muscle-invasive, muscle-invasive and metastatic UC (mUC) has evolved with the advent of immunotherapy.Areas covered: This paper summarizes current data and ongoing research into the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in various settings of UC, including as maintenance therapy in chemotherapy-responsive mUC (with recent approval for avelumab in this setting) and as neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies in localized and non-muscle-invasive disease. In addition, the authors review the combination of ICIs with chemotherapy, radiation and targeted therapies in an effort to increase response durability and efficacy.Expert opinion: While there has been a rapid expansion in clinical trials, platinum-based chemotherapy remains standard treatment in perioperative and first-line metastatic UC. The identification of biomarkers that can identify patients who will respond to ICIs has yielded conflicting results and has been largely non-generalizable to clinical practice. Further research into novel strategies and combinations with ICIs is needed to better characterize the role of immunotherapy in UC.