Management of Patients with Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer Achieving A Clinical Complete Response after Neoadjuvant Therapy: Evidence and Consideration for Active Surveillance.

Abstract

Purpose of review: To review the landscape of bladder preservation management and active surveillance for those who achieve clinical complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Recent findings: Multiple cohorts of patients with clinical complete response report overall survival rates over 80% multiple years after treatment without cystectomy. Most recently, prospective clinical trials have been pursuing clinical complete response as a valid primary endpoint. Recent advances in immunotherapy and molecular biomarkers present new horizons in expanding the potential patient population as well as accuracy in prediction of pathologic complete response. While neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical cystectomy is the standard of care for muscle-invasive bladder cancer, interest in active surveillance is growing as evidenced by the increasing number of studies. Accumulating evidence and new prospective data suggest this could be a plausible option in the future. These cohorts remain highly selected, thus generalizability is still under investigation.