Advances in medical treatments for genitourinary cancers

Genitourinary (GU) cancers are amongst the most common cancer types, especially neoplasms of the prostate, bladder and kidney. While cure can often only be achieved surgically at early stages, management of advanced or metastatic disease requires systemic medical treatment. With the exception of testicular cancers, systemic therapy of GU cancers has a palliative character and aims to prolong survival and to increase quality of life. With the emergence of molecular targeted therapies such as receptor tyrosine kinase or checkpoint inhibitors, medical management of GU cancers has seen a dramatic progress within the last decade. Moreover, novel combinatorial and sequential therapies have been established thus providing more options for each individual patient but also rendering medical management of urologic tumors more complex. Finally, much progress has been achieved in deciphering the molecular landscapes of GU cancers by next generation sequencing, and novel biomarkers are under investigation to improve patient selection and to optimize systemic therapy.