Over the past decade, immunotherapy has fundamentally reshaped the therapeutic landscape for several urological cancers, this mostly involved urothelial carcinoma and renal cell carcinoma. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and ICI–targeted therapy combinations have improved survival and changed first-line standards of care in advanced renal cell carcinoma. These medications have also offered durable responses in a subset of patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma. These advances are currently reflected in clinical practice guidelines and pivotal randomized trials.

At the same time, numerous important clinical challenges remain. These challenges include modest overall response rates, heterogeneous biomarker performance, optimal sequencing with targeted agents and cytotoxic therapies, and immune-related toxicity management. There is also a growing need to use tumor microenvironment characteristics in the decision for precision immunotherapy in prostate and other “immunologically cold” urologic tumors.

This Research Topic aims to summarize and consolidate the latest clinical evidence that has changed practice in urothelial and renal cancers; to critically evaluate biomarkers (PD-L1, TMB, gene signatures, ctDNA …etc.) and their clinical utility across disease settings; to present translational advances in tumor-immune interactions in prostate, bladder, and renal tumors and how these advances influence combination strategies (e.g., ICI + VEGF-TKI, ICI + antibody–drug conjugates …etc.); to define best practices for patient selection, toxicity management, and real-world clinical implementation of immunotherapies in urologic oncology; and to highlight future directions: personalized neoantigen vaccines, adaptive cell therapies, novel checkpoint targets, and trial designs for rare urologic histologies.

We welcome a balanced collection of articles, including:
• Original research about Immunotherapy in Urological cancers, describing management, implementation and toxicity.
• Systematic reviews / meta-analyses on ICI efficacy across lines of therapy.
• Translational reports (single-cell profiling, tumor microenvironment, biomarker validation).
• Clinical viewpoint articles and expert consensus on the matter.

Immunotherapy has delivered transformative benefits in subsets of patients with urologic cancers, but major opportunities remain to increase response rates, refine patient selection, and develop durable, safe combination regimens. A Research Topic collecting high-quality reviews, original research papers, translational insights, and pragmatic clinical guidance will accelerate the translation of emerging science into improved patient care.

Please note that Dr. Oudai Hassan has previously been on an advisory board for AstraZeneca. Also note that manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this Research Topic.

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

The Role of Immunotherapy in Urological Tumors