NKTR-214 plus Opdivo as first-line therapy had an overall response rate of 48 percent.

A new area of research is examining the use of checkpoint inhibitors before surgery, a practice known as neoadjuvant therapy.

Requires use of diagnostic tests for PD-L1 levels in tumor tissue from bladder cancer patients.

Decreased survival seen in some metastatic bladder cancer patients treated with pembrolizumab or atezolizumab monotherapy.

Researchers say adopting the treatment “could spare patients a lot of suffering from repeated surgeries and save health care costs.”