Current status and future perspectives of immunotherapy in bladder cancer treatment

The treatment strategy of bladder cancer has evolved not only through the traditional modalities of surgery and chemotherapy but also by immunotherapy over the past several decades. Immunotherapies such as intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccines and immune checkpoint blockades (ICBs) are sometimes used for treating patients with bladder cancer, especially those who develop resistance to conventional first-line treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, it is a limited number of individuals that see clinical benefits from this approach, and complicating matters more is that many of these patients suffer severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs). If current momentum continues to result in improved response rates and managed irAEs, immunotherapy could be poised to revolutionize the landscape of urothelial carcinoma therapeutics.

Opportunities and obstacles of targeted therapy and immunotherapy in small cell lung cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive malignant tumour which accounts for approximately 13-15% of all newly diagnosed lung cancer cases. To date, platinum-based chemotherapy are still the first-line treatments for SCLC. However, chemotherapy resistance and systemic toxicity limit the long-term clinical outcome of first-line treatment in SCLC. Recent years, targeted therapy and immunotherapy have made great breakthrough in cancer therapy, and researchers aim to exploit both as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy to improve the survival of SCLC patients, but limited effectiveness and the adverse events remain the major obstacles in the treatment of SCLC. To overcome these challenges for SCLC therapies, prevention and early diagnosis for this refractory disease is very important. At the same time, we should reveal more information about the pathogenesis of SCLC and the mechanism of drug resistance. Finally, new treatment strategies should also be taken into considerations, such as repurposing drug, optimising of targets, combination therapy strategies or prognostic biomarkers to enhance therapeutic effects and decrease the adverse events rates in SCLC patients. This article will review the molecular biology characteristics of SCLC and discuss the opportunities and obstacles of the current therapy for SCLC patients.