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Recent adjuvant vascular endothelial growth factor tyrosine kinase inhibitor trials in resected high-risk renal cell carcinoma that compared sunitinib, sorafenib, pazopanib, and axitinib with placebo controls have demonstrated mixed impact on disease-free survival, no improvement in overall survival, and, thus, controversy. Here, we discuss the results and conduct of these trials to provide new insight into the goals and strategies of treating resected renal cell cancer that is at high risk for recurrence. The potential for leveraging what we have learned from these trials to conduct successful contemporary adjuvant and perioperative immune checkpoint inhibition trials and future adjuvant trial design is discussed.

Purpose: We examined whether the survival advantage of androgen-deprivation therapy with radiotherapy (ADT plus RT) relative to ADT alone for men with locally advanced prostate cancer reported in two randomized trials holds in real-world clinical practice and extended the evidence to patients poorly represented in the trials., Methods: We conducted nonrandomized effectiveness studies of ADT plus RT versus ADT in three groups of patients diagnosed between 1995 and 2007 and observed through 2009 in the SEER-Medicare data set: (1) the randomized clinical trial (RCT) cohort, which included men age 65 to 75 years and was most consistent with participants in the randomized trials; (2) the elderly cohort, which included men age > 75 years with locally advanced prostate cancer; and (3) the screen-detected cohort, which included men age ≥ 65 years with screen-detected high-risk prostate cancer. We evaluated cause-specific and all-cause mortality using propensity score, instrumental variable (IV), and sensitivity analyses., Results: In the RCT cohort, ADT plus RT was associated with reduced cause-specific and all-cause mortality relative to ADT alone (cause-specific propensity score-adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.43; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.49; all-cause propensity score-adjusted HR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.67). Effectiveness estimates for the RCT cohort were not significantly different from those from randomized trials (P > .1). In the elderly and screen-detected cohorts, ADT plus RT was also associated with reduced cause-specific and all-cause mortality. IV analyses produced estimates similar to those from propensity score-adjusted methods., Conclusion: Older men with locally advanced or screen-detected high-risk prostate cancer who receive ADT alone risk decrements in cause-specific and overall survival., (© 2015 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.)

Purpose: Neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy is standard of care for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC); however, it is infrequently adopted in practice because of concerns regarding toxicity and delay to cystectomy. We hypothesized that three cycles of neoadjuvant accelerated methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (AMVAC) would be safe, shorten the time to surgery, and yield similar pathologic complete response (pT0) rates compared with historical controls., Patients and Methods: Patients with cT2-T4a and N0-N1 MIBC were eligible and received three cycles of AMVAC with pegfilgrastim followed by radical cystectomy with lymph node dissection. The primary end point was pT0 rate. Telomere length (TL) and p53 mutation status were correlated with response and toxicity., Results: Forty-four patients were accrued; 60% had stage III to IV disease; median age was 64 years. Forty patients were evaluable for response, with 15 (38%; 95% CI, 23% to 53%) showing pT0 at cystectomy, meeting the primary end point of the study. Another six patients (14%) were downstaged to non-muscle invasive disease. Most (82%) experienced only grade 1 to 2 treatment-related toxicities. There were no grade 3 or 4 renal toxicities and no treatment-related deaths. One patient developed metastases and thus did not undergo cystectomy; all others (n = 43) proceeded to cystectomy within 8 weeks after last chemotherapy administration. Median time from start of chemotherapy to cystectomy was 9.7 weeks. TL and p53 mutation did not predict response or toxicity., Conclusion: AMVAC is well tolerated and results in similar pT0 rates with 6 weeks of treatment compared with standard 12-week regimens. Further analysis is ongoing to ascertain whether molecular alterations in tumor samples can predict response to chemotherapy., (© 2014 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.)

Purpose: To determine if escalated radiation dose using hypofractionation significantly reduces biochemical and/or clinical disease failure (BCDF) in men treated primarily for prostate cancer., Patients and Methods: Between June 2002 and May 2006, men with favorable- to high-risk prostate cancer were randomly allocated to receive 76 Gy in 38 fractions at 2.0 Gy per fraction (conventional fractionation intensity-modulated radiation therapy [CIMRT]) versus 70.2 Gy in 26 fractions at 2.7 Gy per fraction (hypofractionated IMRT [HIMRT]); the latter was estimated to be equivalent to 84.4 Gy in 2.0 Gy fractions. High-risk patients received long-term androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), and some intermediate-risk patients received short-term ADT. The primary end point was the cumulative incidence of BCDF. Secondarily, toxicity was assessed., Results: There were 303 assessable patients with a median follow-up of 68.4 months. No significant differences were seen between the treatment arms in terms of the distribution of patients by clinicopathologic or treatment-related (ADT use and length) factors. The 5-year rates of BCDF were 21.4% (95% CI, 14.8% to 28.7%) for CIMRT and 23.3% (95% CI, 16.4% to 31.0%) for HIMRT (P = .745). There were no statistically significant differences in late toxicity between the arms; however, in subgroup analysis, patients with compromised urinary function before enrollment had significantly worse urinary function after HIMRT., Conclusion: The hypofractionation regimen did not result in a significant reduction in BCDF; however, it is delivered in 2.5 fewer weeks. Men with compromised urinary function before treatment may not be ideal candidates for this approach.