by Colleen Fleiss on October 23, 2023 at 11:15 PM

In the randomized phase 3 trial, titled "CheckMate 901," patients who received the immunotherapy nivolumab in conjunction with the chemotherapy combo of gemcitabine and cisplatin exhibited markedly better outcomes when contrasted with those who only received the chemotherapy combination .

The results were simultaneously reported in The New England Journal of Medicine and at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology.

Simple Urine Test can Detect Urothelial Cancers

Using a simple, postal, urine test helps detect signs of urothelial cancer in Lynch Syndrome (LS) patients who are at high risk of developing tumors, said researchers.

The number of patients who had no evidence of disease after treatment was nearly twice as high in the group that received chemotherapy with nivolumab, a monoclonal antibody immune checkpoint inhibitor that harnesses the immune system to fight cancer.

Unprecedented Breakthrough in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma Treatment

"No new agent when added to first-line standard-of-care cisplatin-based chemotherapy has improved overall survival in metastatic urothelial carcinoma until now," said Matthew Galsky, MD, Co-Director of the Center of Excellence for Bladder Cancer at The Tisch Cancer Institute, a part of the Tisch Cancer Center at Mount Sinai, and senior author of the publication.

A total of 608 patients participated in this trial. Both overall survival and progression-free survival were higher in patients on the immunotherapy-chemotherapy regimen after almost three years. The median duration of complete response in those patients was 37.1 months compared to 13.2 months for patients on just chemotherapy.

UroSEEK may Help Diagnose Urothelial Cancer Early

Urothelial Cancer may now be detected by a new noninvasive technique called UroSEEK.This method works by identifying genetic errors in cells shed into the urine.

This trial was funded by Bristol Myers Squibb in collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. The trial was an international collaboration among several institutions.

Reference :

  1. Nivolumab/Chemo Yields Survival Benefits in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma -(https://www.cancernetwork.com/view/nivolumab-chemo-yields-survival-benefits-in-metastatic-urothelial-carcinoma)