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ABSTRACT: Purpose
To evaluate the safety and efficacy of gemcitabine and cisplatin in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab as neoadjuvant therapy before radical cystectomy (RC) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer.Methods
Patients with clinical T2-4aN0/XM0 muscle-invasive bladder cancer eligible for RC were enrolled. The initial six patients received lead-in pembrolizumab 200 mg once 2 weeks prior to pembrolizumab 200 mg once on day 1, cisplatin 70 mg/m2 once on day 1, and gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m2 once on days 1 and 8 every 21 days for four cycles. This schedule was discontinued for toxicity and subsequent patients received cisplatin 35 mg/m2 once on days 1 and 8 without lead-in pembrolizumab. The primary end point was pathologic downstaging (< pT2N0) with null and alternative hypothesis rates of 35% and 55%, respectively. Secondary end points were toxicity including patient-reported outcomes, complete pathologic response (pT0N0), event-free survival, and overall survival. Association of pathologic downstaging with programmed cell death ligand 1 staining was explored.Results
Thirty-nine patients were enrolled between June 2016 and March 2020 (72% cT2, 23% cT3, and 5% cT4a). Patients received a median of four cycles of therapy. All patients underwent RC except one who declined. Twenty-two of 39 patients (56% [95% CI, 40 to 72]) achieved < pT2N0 and 14 of 39 (36% [95% CI, 21 to 53]) achieved pT0N0. Most common adverse events (AEs) of any grade were thrombocytopenia (74%), anemia (69%), neutropenia (67%), and hypomagnesemia (67%). One patient had new-onset type 1 diabetes mellitus with ketoacidosis related to pembrolizumab and no patients required steroids for immune-related AEs. Clinicians consistently under-reported AEs when compared with patients.Conclusion
Neoadjuvant gemcitabine and cisplatin plus pembrolizumab met its primary end point for improved pathologic downstaging and was generally safe. A global study of perioperative chemotherapy plus pembrolizumab or placebo is ongoing.
SUBMITTER: Rose TL
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8478388 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Rose Tracy L TL Harrison Michael R MR Deal Allison M AM Ramalingam Sundhar S Whang Young E YE Brower Blaine B Dunn Mary M Osterman Chelsea K CK Heiling Hillary M HM Bjurlin Marc A MA Smith Angela B AB Nielsen Matthew E ME Tan Hung-Jui HJ Wallen Eric E Woods Michael E ME George Daniel D Zhang Tian T Drier Anthony A Kim William Y WY Milowsky Matthew I MI
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 20210824 28
<h4>Purpose</h4>To evaluate the safety and efficacy of gemcitabine and cisplatin in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab as neoadjuvant therapy before radical cystectomy (RC) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer.<h4>Methods</h4>Patients with clinical T2-4aN0/XM0 muscle-invasive bladder cancer eligible for RC were enrolled. The initial six patients received lead-in pembrolizumab 200 mg once 2 weeks prior to pembrolizumab 200 mg once on day 1, cisplatin 70 mg/m<sup>2</sup> o ...[more]