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Urothelial cancer: Less gained from immunotherapy in patients with poor performance scores

Key clinical point: Immune checkpoint inhibitors may not overcome the unfavorable prognostic influence of poor performance status in patients with advanced urothelial cancer.

Major finding: Overall survival with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy was better for patients with a performance status of 0 or 1 vs. at least 2 treated in the first line (median, 15.2 vs. 7.2 months; HR, 0.62; P = .01) although not in subsequent lines (median, 9.8 vs. 8.2 months; HR, 0.78; P = .27).

Study details: Multicenter retrospective cohort study of 499 patients given immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced urothelial cancer.

Disclosures: Dr. Khaki did not disclose any conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the National Cancer Institute, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, the Seattle Translational Tumor Research Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Imperial Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, the Cancer Research UK Imperial Centre, the Wellcome Trust Strategic Fund, and Merck.

Citation:

Khaki AR et al. Cancer. 2019 Dec 12. doi: 10.1002/cncr.32645.