Title:Targeted Therapy for Advanced Urothelial Cancer of the Bladder: Where Do We Stand?
Volume: 12
Issue: 9
Author(s): Zhaowei Zhu, Zhoujun Shen and Chen Xu
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Aflibercept, Bevacizumab, Bladder cancer, Everolimus, Gefitinib, Lapatinib, Sunitinib, Sorafenib, Targeted therapy, Trastuzumab
Abstract: The treatment of advanced urothelial cancer of the bladder has evolved substantially during recent years. Chemotherapy has
been the mainstay of treatment and confers survival advantage. Despite such advances, the chemotherapy of bladder cancer is far from
satisfactory due to severe side effects. Targeted therapy with novel drugs directed at specific molecular pathways opens promising new
avenues to improve patient outcome. A systematic review examined the clinical data for novel targeted agents in 10 phase II trials, with
a focus on bevacizumab, aflibercept, sunitinib, sorafenib, gefitinib, lapatinib and trastuzumab. Besides, we present studies on other novel,
promising targeted agents, including pazopanib, cetuximab and everolimus. Although bevacizumab and trastuzumab have shown
promising results for patients with advanced bladder cancer, other targeted agents have not achieved the same clinical benefit in this
disease as seen in other common epithelial cancers. Ultimately, combination targeted therapy, sequential therapy, adjuvant and
neoadjuvant therapy may yield the best outcomes.
