Atezolizumab Improves Survival Rate in Bladder Cancer Patients

Bladder cancer patients whose blood contained circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), treated with the immunotherapy drug named Atezolizumab, responded well to the drug.

Immunotherapy drug Atezolizumab improved clinical outcomes, especially survival rates in bladder cancer patients, as per the study presented at the European Association of Urology annual congress in Amsterdam.

The research was part of a larger Phase III trial named IMvigor010, which looked at whether giving Atezolizumab for up to one year to patients following bladder removal surgery improved the patients’ survival prospects, compared to a group that received no further treatment after surgery but placed in an observation group.

‘Bladder cancer patients who were ctDNA positive, showed a marked improvement after getting treatment with atezolizumab.’
Read More..

Results of Trial on Atezolizumab:

Results showed no significant difference in overall survival between the two groups in the intention-to-treat population, but was noticed that a subgroup of patients who were ctDNA positive showed a marked improvement when they were given Atezolizumab.

These benefits included significantly higher disease-free survival, and significantly higher overall survival, than the observation group. This effect wasn’t seen in ctDNA negative patients.

Researchers also found that patients that were ctDNA positive, but subsequently changed to became ctDNA negative after treatment with Atezolizumab, ultimately had a particularly good prognosis.

Professor Gschwend, Chairman of the Department of Urology at the Technical University of Munich, said: “We already knew that patients who are ctDNA positive have a poor prognosis compared to those who are ctDNA negative. But this is the first time we’ve been able to show that with immunotherapy we can actually change the course of the disease depending on a patient’s ctDNA status.”

He continued: “If we can prove that consequent drug activity is linked to ctDNA status, and that high-risk patients will benefit, that could in time change the standard treatment pathway – and ultimately bring down the average cost of ctDNA analysis.”

Professor Morgan Roupret, Chairman of the European Section of Onco-Urology of the European Association of Urology, said: “The field of personalized medicine, using not only clinical but molecular indicators, is just around the corner. So, analyzing ctDNA is very interesting.”

It is easy to do with new technology and it means we can select a subset of patients who are likely to respond.”

Bladder Cancer – Symptoms, Signs, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis & Prevention
Bladder cancer occurs due to abnormal cell growth in the urinary bladder. The most common kind usually is urothelial cancer or transitional cell carcinoma.

The next step will be the upcoming IMvigor 011 study, which has been redesigned as a consequence of these results.

With 500 participants, the trial will evaluate the use of ctDNA sampling, and will compare Atezolizumab against placebo in only ctDNA-positive patients, post-surgery.

Source-Medindia