Patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma are taking a step towards precision oncology

Chemotherapy used to treat aggressive advanced and metastatic urothelial carcinoma is often accompanied by many side effects
.
Recently, a new class of drugs, called antibody-drug conjugates, has been approved for use in patients
with metastatic urothelial cancer.
Antibody-drug conjugates are made by conjugating antibodies that target the surface of tumor cells with highly toxic chemotherapy agents
.
This combines the selectivity of targeted antibody therapy with the cytotoxic potential of conventional chemotherapy and represents an innovative and new approach
to oncology.

Use of antibody-drug conjugates

The new drug is also being used by UKB urology to treat patients
with metastatic urothelial cancer.
"Enfortumab vedotin, the first approved antibody-drug conjugate, is a very promising treatment
for metastatic urothelial cancer.
However, we still know very little about who actually benefits from this therapy, which can also lead to serious side effects such as skin irritation or neurological disorders," Klümper said
.

Targeted therapy cannot reach all tumor cells

"For the first time, we were able to demonstrate that surface molecules targeting delivery of chemotherapy drugs in metastatic urothelial carcinoma are often reduced or missing
.
Conventional immunohistochemistry, which can detect this lack of surface structure, is associated with resistance to enfortumab vedotin, so these patients may be better able to receive alternative therapies
.
Our work is therefore a step towards precision oncology for patients with metastatic urothelial cancer", says
Dr.
Klümper.
His goal is to ensure that these potentially toxic drugs are only used in patients
who could also benefit from treatment.

Outstanding Research Award

For his highly relevant discoveries in the more precise treatment of patients with urinary tumors, Dr.
Klümper was awarded the prestigious C.
E.
Alken Award
.
The C.
E.
Alken Foundation promotes clinical and experimental research
in urology by awarding the annual Prize for Outstanding Scientific Work to outstanding German-language researchers who have made significant contributions to the field of urology.
"This award is very important
in the field of urology.
The fact that Dr Klümper received this award as a young resident is special and speaks once again for his important and highly innovative research in the treatment of bladder cancer," said
Professor Manuel Ritter, Head of the UKB Urology and Paediatric Urology Clinic.

Dr.
Klümpers' experience with new drugs may be highly relevant to the treatment, and as part of the study, he shared it with a network of other university hospitals and clinics so that as many patients as possible could receive treatment optimization
.