BACKGROUND: Perioperative systemic treatments play a crucial role in the comprehensive management of muscle-invasive bladder cancer. While neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy has a proven efficacy, administering adjuvant chemotherapy can be challenging in patients with multiple comorbidities. Although immunotherapy has shown success in metastatic settings, its effectiveness in both neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings remains under investigation. This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to assess the impact of chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy in neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant settings.
METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted by consulting the PubMed, Scopus, and ClinicalTrial.gov databases for the period from 1994 to 2023. The analysis utilized Forest Plots for key points of interest: overall survival/pathologic response for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and overall survival/disease-free survival for adjuvant chemotherapy (AC), employing random or fixed models.
RESULTS: The systematic review included 26 articles, and 14 were incorporated into the meta-analysis. For NAC, five studies assessed overall survival, yielding an overall hazard ratio (HR) of 0.84 [0.75-0.94]; P=0.002. Pathologic response under NAC was evaluated in five studies, resulting in an overall odds ratio (OR) of 0.3 [0.2-0.4]; P<0.001 compared to cystectomy and 0.86 [0.65-1.13]; P=0.28 for MVAC vs. GC. Regarding AC, six studies investigated overall survival, revealing an overall HR of 0.93 [0.77-1.12]; P=0.46. Disease-free survival under AC was examined in seven studies, with an overall OR of 0.58 [0.44-0.78]; P<0.001. Meta-analysis was not conducted for immunotherapy due to limited phase II studies in the neoadjuvant setting and only two available studies in the adjuvant setting.
CONCLUSIONS: This study reaffirms the efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy in neoadjuvant and adjuvant scenarios, enhancing overall survival in muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients. Immunotherapy exhibits promising outcomes in tumor downstaging in the neoadjuvant setting and in disease-free survival, in the adjuvant setting.

OBJECTIVE: To perform a narrative review of the contemporary literature on the diagnosis, prognosis and adjuvant management of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) patients with pathological pelvic lymph node involvement (pN+) at radical cystectomy.
METHODS: A narrative review of the contemporary literature available on Medline was conducted to report studies evaluating the diagnosis, prognosis and/or adjuvant treatments for MIBC patients with pN+ disease at radical cystectomy.
RESULTS: Open or robotic extended pelvic lymph node dissection up to the crossing of the ureter with common iliac vessels can enhance the diagnosis of pN+ MIBC, especially using separate packages for the submission of a maximum number of lymph nodes. The main prognosis factors for pN+ patients are the number of positive and retrieved lymph nodes, lymph node density, extranodal extension as well as lymph node metastasis diameter. Adjuvant chemotherapy is likely to prolong overall survival in pN+ patients treated with radical cystectomy alone while adjuvant immunotherapy using nivolumab has been shown to decrease the risk of recurrence in all pN+ patients, especially those with ypN+ disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical cystectomy. However, few data are currently available on the role of adjuvant radiation therapy, which remains currently experimental for these patients.
CONCLUSIONS: Multiple parameters have been reported to impact the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with pN+ MIBC at radical cystectomy. Adjuvant management is currently based on chemotherapy and immunotherapy with preliminary data on radiation therapy.

Thanks to the success of checkpoint inhibitors, immunotherapy now plays a major role in the management of a large number of solid tumors, while the number of indications continues to grow and new combinations could, in the near future, further modify treatment standards. However, the response rates of immunotherapies as monotherapy are modest and their use is increasingly considered in combination with other cancer treatments (chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy or certain targeted therapies). Combinations with radiotherapy seem particularly attractive because there is a strong experimental rationale linking part of the efficacy of ionizing radiation to an induced stimulation of both of the innate and adaptive response. Many early phases and a number of large randomized combination trials have published efficacy and safety results, while important trials are still ongoing and will provide answers in the near future. This short review recalls the experimental biological rationale for immuno-radiotherapy and highlights some of the fundamental directions being explored, then presents the clinical efficacy and safety results available to date, those expected in the near future, and finally outlines the outlook in this rapidly evolving field.

We report the case of an 84-year-old woman with poorly differentiated non-small cell carcinoma of the right parotid who presented with headache, was found to have a primary right parotid gland cancer as well as metastatic disease, and underwent palliative radiotherapy to the primary site. The patient received no chemotherapy or immunotherapy, but both the primary site and several non-irradiated foci in the lungs regressed or completely resolved. The patient remained free of disease for about one year before progression. The case is a rare instance of abscopal regression of metastatic disease in the absence of pharmacologic immunomodulation. A literature review surveys the history of the abscopal effect of radiation therapy, attempts to understand the mechanisms of its successes and failures, and points to new approaches that can inform and improve the outcomes of radioimmunotherapy.

Management of genitourinary (GU) cancers is improving rapidly with the development of immunotherapy agents, especially anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 therapies. Large studies have shown better outcomes for the treatment of these patients, leading to new drug approvals and recent changes in standards of care in renal, prostate and bladder cancer. We performed a review of recent studies assessing efficacy of immuno-oncology therapies in GU cancers. New results are summarized and next ways of development of clinical research are discussed as the use of such therapies will soon be assessed in first-line or adjuvant settings.