Experts say a new treatment for advanced bladder cancer, which has just been approved by NHS England, could double survival time for patients and usher in a “fundamental shift” in care for patients with late-stage disease.
The Independent reports that treatment for advanced bladder cancer had not significantly changed since the 1980s, and that there had been “unmet need” for patients, with around 29% of those diagnosed with stage 4 cancer – when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body – surviving for a year after diagnosis.
The NHS believes 1 250 people a year could benefit from the treatment, which is a combination of enfortumab vedotin, an antibody-drug also known as Padcev, made by Astellas and Pfizer – with pembrolizumab, a drug known as a PD-L1 inhibitor, also known as Keytruda, made by Merck.
Clinical trials suggest that the treatment combination, when tested against platinum-based chemotherapy, led to improved survival for patients.
“Before the EV-302 clinical trial, the treatment of advanced bladder cancer treatment hadn’t changed much since the 1980s,” said Professor Thomas Powles, director of Barts Cancer Institute Biomedical Research Centre (QMUL), UK and primary investigator on the trial.
Trial data indicated that patients who took the treatment combination survived for an average of 33.8 months compared with 15.9 months with chemotherapy.
Researchers also measured the amount of time people survived without their disease worsening – also known as progression-free survival – and found that patients on the combination treatment had just more than a year of progression-free survival compared with six months for those on standard treatment.
Three in 10 (30%) patients had a so-called “complete response” when getting the combination treatment, meaning there was no evidence of cancer remaining, compared with 14.5% of those who received chemotherapy.
The treatment combination will now be available for NHS patients in England after approval from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for patients with “unresectable or metastatic urothelial cancer who are eligible for platinum-containing chemotherapy”. It is given as an IV infusion in hospitals or clinics.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Immunotherapy may boost bladder cancer patients’ survival – UK trial
Potential breakthrough for bladder cancer: Netherlands trials
FDA approves Merck’s Ketruda — first new treatment for bladder cancer in 20 years