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Dr. Andrea Apolo

๐Ÿ‘ค Person
291 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

That's a little much. We decreased that. And I liked how sensitive it was, really, of the ctDNA negative patients. Only two of the patients developed metastases. Now, of course, my hope would be that it would be zero and that it would be super sensitive and it would pick that up. And we saw that also.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

In the early data presented from the InVigor 011, where they followed patients that were ctDNA negative, and they did see that some patients, although a really small percentage of patients that were ctDNA negative, did have progressive disease that was metastatic, that was not picked up.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

In the early data presented from the InVigor 011, where they followed patients that were ctDNA negative, and they did see that some patients, although a really small percentage of patients that were ctDNA negative, did have progressive disease that was metastatic, that was not picked up.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

In the early data presented from the InVigor 011, where they followed patients that were ctDNA negative, and they did see that some patients, although a really small percentage of patients that were ctDNA negative, did have progressive disease that was metastatic, that was not picked up.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

They were, and I think that we're only getting better. So we're only getting better. The assays are getting more sensitive. They're including methylation. They're even doing whole genome sequencing instead of whole exome sequencing now. So I think the biomarker is evolving, and we're only going to get more sensitive.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

They were, and I think that we're only getting better. So we're only getting better. The assays are getting more sensitive. They're including methylation. They're even doing whole genome sequencing instead of whole exome sequencing now. So I think the biomarker is evolving, and we're only going to get more sensitive.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

They were, and I think that we're only getting better. So we're only getting better. The assays are getting more sensitive. They're including methylation. They're even doing whole genome sequencing instead of whole exome sequencing now. So I think the biomarker is evolving, and we're only going to get more sensitive.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

And sometimes I struggle when I don't see anything and the patient has already undergone all the treatments. So they've already undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy, undergone radical surgery, undergone adjuvant checkpoint, and their NAD, and then they have this positive ctDNA. I don't know what to do at that point. Do I start more systemic therapy? How do I intensify the treatment?

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

And sometimes I struggle when I don't see anything and the patient has already undergone all the treatments. So they've already undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy, undergone radical surgery, undergone adjuvant checkpoint, and their NAD, and then they have this positive ctDNA. I don't know what to do at that point. Do I start more systemic therapy? How do I intensify the treatment?

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

And sometimes I struggle when I don't see anything and the patient has already undergone all the treatments. So they've already undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy, undergone radical surgery, undergone adjuvant checkpoint, and their NAD, and then they have this positive ctDNA. I don't know what to do at that point. Do I start more systemic therapy? How do I intensify the treatment?

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

Do I restart checkpoint inhibitor? I mean, I think there's a lot of unanswered questions. The marker is available for us here in the US. And I think we need to learn how to use that tool a little bit better than what we know now. But I think it'll come.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

Do I restart checkpoint inhibitor? I mean, I think there's a lot of unanswered questions. The marker is available for us here in the US. And I think we need to learn how to use that tool a little bit better than what we know now. But I think it'll come.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

Do I restart checkpoint inhibitor? I mean, I think there's a lot of unanswered questions. The marker is available for us here in the US. And I think we need to learn how to use that tool a little bit better than what we know now. But I think it'll come.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

And that would be the right thing to do, but it's hard for me not to check because I know that it's an available tool. And of course I want as much data as possible to make an informed decision for patients. But in some scenarios, we don't have the right answers to what to do with that result.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

And that would be the right thing to do, but it's hard for me not to check because I know that it's an available tool. And of course I want as much data as possible to make an informed decision for patients. But in some scenarios, we don't have the right answers to what to do with that result.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

And that would be the right thing to do, but it's hard for me not to check because I know that it's an available tool. And of course I want as much data as possible to make an informed decision for patients. But in some scenarios, we don't have the right answers to what to do with that result.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

I don't know the answer to that, but I do tell you that initially I was, when a patient got checkpoint and they develop metastatic disease, I was moving on to EV alone, but The more I thought about it and the more I discussed it with patients, I think that there's a synergy with EV plus Pembro and I think that it's reasonable to try to intensify the treatment that they're receiving.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

I don't know the answer to that, but I do tell you that initially I was, when a patient got checkpoint and they develop metastatic disease, I was moving on to EV alone, but The more I thought about it and the more I discussed it with patients, I think that there's a synergy with EV plus Pembro and I think that it's reasonable to try to intensify the treatment that they're receiving.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

I don't know the answer to that, but I do tell you that initially I was, when a patient got checkpoint and they develop metastatic disease, I was moving on to EV alone, but The more I thought about it and the more I discussed it with patients, I think that there's a synergy with EV plus Pembro and I think that it's reasonable to try to intensify the treatment that they're receiving.

BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo

So even if they progressed on checkpoint, continuing checkpoint and giving the infortimavidotin with pembrolizumab in the metastatic setting. So I am doing that. I don't think it's wrong just to give EV by itself, but I don't know what the right