Novel Therapeutic Approaches in Urothelial Carcinoma

Dear Colleagues,

Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is the tenth most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. Historically, five-year survival rates for patients with locally advanced diseases are about 36%, but drop to about 5% for patients with distant metastases. In recent years, diagnostic and therapeutic advances have led to lower mortality rates for patients with urothelial carcinoma (UC). The standard of care for advanced urothelial carcinoma remains platinum-based combination chemotherapy, followed by maintenance or sequential immunotherapy. However, the therapeutic landscape has recently been expanded with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) approval of erdafitinib for tumors with a mutation or fusion, which activates fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) 2 or FGFR3. In addition, two drug-conjugated antibodies, enfortumab vedotin (EV) and sacituzumab govitecan (SG), are indicated after progression to platinum-based chemotherapy and programmed cell death inhibitor 1 (PD1) or programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). Furthermore, the adoption of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in the management of oligometastatic urothelial carcinoma can improve disease control.

There are several clinical trials ongoing with novel agents and drug combinations to further expand the therapeutic horizon of urothelial carcinoma.

The increasing number of long-term responders to new systemic treatments requires early identification and appropriate management of known and emerging toxicities.

The next step is the large-scale analysis of somatic and germline genomics, aimed at the development of therapies directed at tumor-specific, druggable genetic targets. In addition, the identification of specific biomarkers is crucial for developing personalized therapeutic strategies for urothelial carcinoma patients.

We invite you and your colleagues to submit original research articles or reviews focusing on:

• Genomic and molecular characterization of urothelial carcinoma;
• Identification of prognostic and predictive biomarkers;
• Future therapeutic perspectives;
• Management of emerging therapies.

Dr. Mimma Rizzo
Dr. Patrizia Giannatempo
Guest Editors

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• urothelial carcinoma
• immunotherapy
• targeted therapies
• antibody–drug conjugate
• biomarker
• radiotherapy