Faculty Collaboration Database

Treatment-Related Adverse Events and Associated Outcomes in Patients With Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma Treated With Enfortumab Vedotin: Analysis of the UNITE Study. Cancer Med 2025 Oct;14(19):e71284

Date

10/01/2025

Pubmed ID

41031719

Pubmed Central ID

PMC12486332

DOI

10.1002/cam4.71284

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-105017750478 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   5 Citations

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (EV), an antibody-drug conjugate approved for advanced urothelial carcinoma (aUC), has limited real-world safety data and no validated predictive biomarkers. Retrospective studies suggest higher objective response rates (ORR) among patients developing EV-related dermatologic toxicities, but survival implications remain unclear. This analysis assessed the safety of EV monotherapy and the impact of dermatologic and neurologic toxicities on efficacy outcomes in a multi-institutional cohort.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: UNITE is a multicenter, retrospective study across 16 US sites of patients with aUC treated with targeted agents, including EV. Primary endpoints were the incidence of EV treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs, any grade) and TRAE-related treatment modifications. Secondary endpoints included a comparison of ORR, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) between patients with and without dermatologic toxicities and neuropathy. To reduce immortal time bias, Cox regression models incorporated TRAEs as time-dependent covariates to adjust for EV treatment duration as well as Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS), hemoglobin, and liver metastases.

RESULTS: Between 2018 and 2023, 485 patients with aUC received > 1 dose of EV monotherapy. Most (67%) received > 2 prior therapy lines. Any grade TRAEs occurred in 77%, most frequently neuropathy (36%) and dermatologic toxicities (27%); 57% required treatment modification and 21% discontinued EV, primarily due to neuropathy (9%) and fatigue (3%). Patients with dermatologic toxicities and neuropathy had higher ORR (56% vs. 42%; p = 0.007 and 64% vs. 35%; p < 0.0001, respectively). Neuropathy was independently associated with improved OS (HR 0.66; 95% CI 0.50-0.87; p = 0.002); dermatologic TRAEs were not associated with PFS or OS benefit.

CONCLUSIONS: EV safety outside clinical trials was consistent with prior reports, with no new signals. Treatment modifications were most often due to neuropathy, dermatologic toxicities, and fatigue. Both dermatologic toxicities and neuropathy correlated with higher ORR, but only neuropathy was independently associated with improved OS.

Author List

Nizam A, Nguyen CB, Li J, Zabor EC, Msaouel P, Jiang CY, Alhalabi O, Oh E, Davidsohn MP, Epstein IB, Bakaloudi DR, Talukder R, Jindal T, Taylor AK, Glover MJ, Khaki AR, Lemke E, Mabey H, Abuqayas B, Jang A, Brown JR, Evans ST, Pywell C, Basu A, Bilen MA, Barata PC, Zakharia Y, Milowsky MI, Kilari D, Hoimes CJ, Shah SA, Emamekhoo H, Davis NB, Gupta S, Grivas P, Bellmunt J, Campbell MT, Alva AS, Koshkin VS

Author

Deepak Kilari MD Associate Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Antibodies, Monoclonal
Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological
Carcinoma, Transitional Cell
Female
Humans
Immunoconjugates
Male
Middle Aged
Retrospective Studies
Treatment Outcome
Urinary Bladder Neoplasms
Urologic Neoplasms