Selected aims were as follows:

To evaluate treatment patterns, response rates, survival parameters, and adverse events of the novel vinca alkaloid vinflunine in patients with second-line metastatic urothelial cancer (mUC) in a routine clinical cohort (retrospective real-world data [RWD] study).

To examine safety and establish a recommended phase II dose for the novel combination of vinflunine and the antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitor sorafenib in second-line mUC patients (prospective dose-finding phase I trial).  To assess anti-tumour efficacy of vinflunine in combination with sorafenib.

To compare progression-free survival of treatment with the experimental combination of vinflunine and gemcitabine versus standard treatment with carboplatin and gemcitabine in first-line cisplatin-ineligible mUC patients (prospective randomized phase II trial). To analyse response rates, overall survival, toxicity, and HRQoL in the experimental and control arms.

To compare the pathological downstaging response to two different schedules of gemcitabine and cisplatin, a more cisplatin-dose-intense 3-week versus a 4-week schedule, as neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to cystectomy in muscle-invasive bladder cancer (retrospective RWD study).

PhD defence was November 20, 2020