The PURE-01 study introduced a novel approach to bladder cancer treatment. Instead of proceeding directly with surgery, patients received pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, prior to the operation. After a three-year follow-up, the results are very promising.
Event-free survival was 74.4%, indicating that many patients responded positively to this treatment.
Overall survival was 83.8%, representing a significant improvement in survival prospects.
An interesting aspect was the use of PD-L1 expression as an indicator of treatment response, suggesting that it could help identify the patients who will benefit most from this innovative therapy. These results bring new hope for patients with bladder cancer and pave the way for new treatment options.
Giuseppe Basile 1, Marco Bandini 1, Ewan A Gibb 2, Jeffrey S Ross 3 4, Daniele Raggi 5, Laura Marandino 5, Tiago Costa de Padua 5, Emanuele Crupi 5, Renzo Colombo 1, Maurizio Colecchia 6 7, Roberta Lucianò 6, Luigi Nocera 1, Marco Moschini 1, Alberto Briganti 1 7, Francesco Montorsi 1 7, Andrea Necchi 5 7
Affiliations
1 Department of Urology, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
2 Decipher Urologic Cancers, Veracyte Inc., Vancouver, Canada.
3 Foundation Medicine Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts.
4 SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York.
5 Department of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
6 Department of Pathology, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
7 Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy.
