29 October 2010

Cancer drug trial success could help patients

A major bladder cancer trial, funded by Cancer Research UK, has shown that adding two commonly used chemotherapy drugs to traditional radiotherapy can reduce the chance of a patient’s tumour coming back by a third.

The trial, led by scientists at the University of Birmingham, and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), is the largest of its kind in the world. Its success could mean fewer patients with invasive bladder cancer will need radical surgery to completely remove their bladder.

The results will be presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual conference on 1st November 2010.

Patients diagnosed with invasive bladder cancer are usually offered either radiotherapy alone or surgery to completely remove the bladder. However, the new study has shown that giving the two chemotherapy drugs, 5FU and Mitomycin C, to patients can often boost the effectiveness of radiotherapy treatment by making cancer cells more sensitive to it.

Professor Nick James, from the University of Birmingham, who led the study with Dr Robert Huddart from the ICR, explained, “These trial results are hugely promising, with a significant reduction in the risk of the cancer returning when compared to radiotherapy alone. When we looked at the risk of potentially lethal invasive disease returning, the improvement was even more marked.”

After two years of follow up, the results showed a tumour relapse rate of only 33 per cent for patients receiving chemotherapy in addition to radiotherapy (known as chemoradiotherapy) compared to 46 per cent for people who were recieving radiotherapy alone. The reduction in relapse of the most severe type of tumour was even more marked at 18 per cent versus 32 per cent percent.

Professor James added, “Importantly, both chemotherapies used in this trial are cheap widely available drugs that are commonly used in cancer treatment already. This makes their use much more practical.

“Having surgery to remove the bladder is a major operation that can seriously impact a patient’s quality of life. We have shown that adding chemotherapy to radiotherapy reduces the risk of the most severe type of tumour recurring by nearly half. Hopefully these trial results will mean more bladder cancer patients are given the opportunity to avoid surgery and preserve their bladder function.”

Each year in the UK around 10,300 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer. It is responsible for more than 4,900 deaths per year, primarily in older people, and is the fourth most common cancer in men.