Single Drug Therapy of PD-1/PD-L1 Checkpoint Inhibitors for Advanced Urothelial Bladder Cancer

Since the first approval of Atezolizumab in May 2016, immunotherapy, PD-1/PD-L has completely changed the way bladder cancer is treated, as chemotherapy was the sole available choice as a treatment for bladder cancer, and the results still was not optimistic, with five licensed drugs treating bladder cancer. Despite the generally poor prognosis of advanced bladder cancer, some patients show persistent responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors. This review summarizes the efficacies and safety of the five drugs: Durvalumab, Atezolizumab, Avelumab and other drugs - from different studies respectively for treating advanced bladder cancer and mentions the side effects and future perspectives. For the treatment, all inhibitors that was licensed have akin efficacy and safety traits, but they differ in terms of dosage, frequency, and financial burden. Only Pembrolizumab, to date, has revealed advantage over conventional chemotherapy in a stochastic Phase III scenario. Pembrolizumab and Atezolizumab are also well tolerated and approved for patients who are unable to receive cisplatin treatment. Patients with bladder cancer now have some hope, thanks to immunotherapy. The current environment is continuously evolving, and new immunotherapy-combination trials are being conducted to further enhance results.