Editor’s Note: In recent years, the management of urologic malignancies—including kidney cancer and bladder cancer—has been moving toward a new era of comprehensive care, innovative treatments, multidisciplinary collaboration (MDT), and multi-technology integration. The goal is to build a “full-course management” system that maximizes clinical benefit for patients by combining advances from across specialties. At the 2025 Pujiang Uro-Oncology Conference, Professor Qing Zou of Jiangsu Cancer Hospital shared the latest developments in the diagnosis and treatment of representative urologic tumors such as kidney cancer and non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). He also discussed the implementation of innovative technologies, MDT collaboration, and the experience of building a full-course management system. 

The Evolving Landscape of NMIBC Treatment

Oncology Frontier – Urology Frontier: How do you view the current state of NMIBC management in China and abroad? Which novel treatment strategies may better address unmet clinical needs?

Professor Zou: This year has brought remarkable progress in systemic therapy for urothelial carcinoma, including NMIBC. Many “new doors” have been opened with the advent of novel agents and treatment modalities, enabling us to achieve long-sought goals such as bladder- and kidney-preservation. This is why we brought these topics to the Pujiang Conference for collective discussion with our colleagues. For example, Professor Dingwei Ye’s team from Fudan University Cancer Hospital began this line of exploration four or five years ago and presented data at this year’s conference from international multicenter trials, domestic multicenter trials, and single-center studies led by their group.In NMIBC specifically, we must not only focus on immediate clinical management but also look toward the future. Multiple promising approaches are emerging. For instance, TAR-200 intravesical drug-delivery therapy reported complete response (CR) rates exceeding 80% at the 2024 ESMO Annual Meeting and the 2025 ASCO GU Symposium, offering strong feasibility for bladder-preservation strategies. Other developments include systemic administration of antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) and intravesical delivery of ADCs or immunotherapy. As evidence matures, these approaches may dramatically reshape the treatment paradigm for NMIBC.

Kidney Cancer in the Era of Multi-Technology Integration

Oncology Frontier – Urology Frontier: Kidney cancer care has entered an era of multi-technology integration, with innovations such as targeted-immunotherapy combinations, robotic surgery, and molecular screening. How can these technologies work together to form a “full-course management” system that improves survival and quality of life?Professor Zou: The profile of kidney cancer patients has changed significantly compared with 10 or 20 years ago when I first began practicing medicine. Greater public health awareness and widespread annual health checkups mean that most cases are now detected at an earlier stage, allowing for nephron-sparing surgery—partial nephrectomy—which in my ward accounts for roughly 90% of cases. Furthermore, with the advent of neoadjuvant therapies and advances in laparoscopic and robotic surgical instrumentation, we can now achieve kidney preservation even in cases previously considered challenging—such as tumors in anatomically complex locations, solitary kidneys, tumor thrombus, or multifocal disease. Neoadjuvant therapy can shrink the tumor preoperatively, allowing for more comprehensive multimodal treatment and ultimately achieving organ preservation.

Innovation, Collaboration, and the Role of MDT

Oncology Frontier – Urology Frontier: This year’s conference featured the “Eastern China High-Quality Development Forum on Urologic Oncology.” Could you share Jiangsu Cancer Hospital’s progress in adopting innovative technologies and conducting clinical research?

Professor Zou: The Pujiang Forum, led by Fudan University Cancer Hospital, is one of the highest-level academic meetings in China—arguably the No.1 academic event in this field. It brings together top centers and teams, sharing their work and institutional development stories. The forum grew out of a consortium of major cancer hospitals, and its scale and academic quality have continuously improved, aligning ever more closely with international standards. Crucially, it fosters multidisciplinary collaboration: urologic oncology treatment has shifted from isolated efforts by individual centers to shared multicenter exchanges. Surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, and nuclear medicine physicians are now working together within MDT frameworks.Our center was honored to be among the first group of institutions designated as one of China’s Top 100 MDT Excellence Units. Over nearly 15 years, MDT has become a defining feature of our department. We run weekly MDT outpatient clinics dedicated to urologic oncology patients, a model similar to that of Fudan University Cancer Hospital and other top centers. Collaborative MDT care has significantly improved patients’ quality of life and long-term outcomes.Our hospital has participated in more than 50 global and domestic multicenter trials led by prominent principal investigators (PIs). Since establishing our MDT team, both the quantity and quality of patient enrollment have been highly regarded, and we have been recognized as a trusted site exempt from repeated audits. Participation in international clinical trials has helped us advance our capabilities significantly. In addition, we conduct independent single-center studies addressing specific clinical questions, with many results already published in domestic and international journals.As Chair of the Urologic and Male Genital Oncology Committee of the Jiangsu Anti-Cancer Association, I also lead epidemiological and treatment-pattern studies focusing on kidney, bladder, and prostate cancer in our province. Our findings are regularly published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences. Innovative treatment strategies—such as organ-preserving approaches and sexual function–sparing procedures in prostate cancer—are now routine at our institution. As a result, patient volumes, surgical caseloads, and 5-year survival rates have all risen steadily.

MDT and Full-Course Management: A Future-Oriented Approach

Oncology Frontier – Urology Frontier: You also chaired the session on comprehensive urologic oncology treatment. As MDT collaboration and full-course management gain traction, could you share your experience building these systems?

Professor Zou: The Comprehensive Treatment Session is always one of the most popular sessions at the Pujiang Forum, offering discussions highly relevant to clinical practice. While many surgeons are naturally interested in minimally invasive surgery sessions, the MDT and comprehensive care sessions are invaluable in showing surgeons how to break out of the “solo practitioner” mindset and combine multiple modalities for optimal patient outcomes.In recent years, there has been increasing enthusiasm for MDT approaches, not only in urologic oncology but across all tumor types. Our center’s bladder-preservation program, run through our MDT team, now allows 20–30 patients annually to successfully avoid radical cystectomy—something that was unimaginable in the past. We expect this number to double in the coming years. With ongoing experience sharing among major centers, similar multimodal strategies can be extended to prostate cancer, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and penile cancer, promising substantial patient benefit in the future.