Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Biomarker challenges for immune checkpoint inhibitors in urothelial carcinoma

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are associated with durable and well-tolerated responses in metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Predicting which patients respond to therapy has been challenging; however, progress has been made using programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 as a biomarker and a second generation of biomarkers, which are being assessed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Current data on PD-L1 as a biomarker of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors for urothelial carcinoma.

References

  1. Sternberg, C. N. et al. Randomized phase III trial of high-dose-intensity methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (MVAC) chemotherapy and recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor versus classic MVAC in advanced urothelial tract tumors: European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Protocol no. 30924. J. Clin. Oncol. 19, 2638–2646 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Powles, T. et al. MPDL3280A (anti-PD-L1) treatment leads to clinical activity in metastatic bladder cancer. Nature 515, 558–562 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Balar, A. V. et al. Atezolizumab as first-line treatment in cisplatin-ineligible patients with locally advanced and metastatic urothelial carcinoma: a single-arm, multicentre, phase 2 trial. Lancet 389, 67–76 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Powles, T. et al. Immune checkpoint inhibition in metastatic urothelial cancer. Eur. Urol. 72, 477–481 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bellmunt, J. et al. Pembrolizumab as second-line therapy for advanced urothelial carcinoma. N. Engl. J. Med. 376, 1015–1026 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Powles, T. et al. Atezolizumab versus chemotherapy in patients with platinum-treated locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (IMvigor211): a multicentre, open-label, phase 3 randomised controlled trial. Lancet 391, 748–757 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Mariathasan, S. et al. TGFβ attenuates tumour response to PD-L1 blockade by contributing to exclusion of T cells. Nature 554, 544–548 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Rosen, D. B. et al. Quantitative measurement of alterations in DNA damage repair (DDR) pathways using single cell network profiling (SCNP). J. Transl Med. 12, 184 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Robertson, A. G. et al. Comprehensive molecular characterization of muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Cell 171, 540–556 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tom Powles.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

T.P. has received research funding and honoraria from Merck Pfizer, AstraZenca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline. L.M. declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Powles, T., Morrison, L. Biomarker challenges for immune checkpoint inhibitors in urothelial carcinoma. Nat Rev Urol 15, 585–587 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-018-0056-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-018-0056-3

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research