Treatment Of Metastatic Bladder Cancer at the Time Of Biochemical reLApse Following Radical Cystectomy

Immunotherapy (checkpoint inhibitors) is approved as first and second line treatment to patients with metastatic bladder cancer. However, response rates are low and no biomarkers have yet shown strong predictive value for patient selection. Moreover, the term 'metastatic' is based on metastases visible on conventional CT scans and, thus, require a certain size of tumour load. Clinical trials are currently being conducted that investigate the use of adjuvant immunotherapy for this group of patients (treatment to all), which will result in massive over-treatment and huge costs to the healthcare system. This project has the primary objective to identify new indications for initiating immunotherapy in patients with metastatic bladder cancer. Sensitive molecular techniques for detection of tumor DNA in the blood will be used to identify patients with early signs of metastatic disease. In addition, comprehensive biomarker analysis will be performed to identify predictors of treatment response.