FDA Approves Nivolumab for Bladder Cancer

NIH: On February 2, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to nivolumab (Opdivo®) for the treatment of some patients with urothelial carcinoma, the most common type of bladder cancer. This makes nivolumab the second immune checkpoint inhibitor to be approved for the treatment of bladder cancer. Approximately half of patients with bladder cancer do not respond to their initial, or first-line, therapy, and only 10%–15% of those patients respond to second-line chemotherapy. The nivolumab approval is for patients with locally advanced or metastatic bladder cancer whose disease has gotten worse during or after first-line, adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapy with platinum-containing chemotherapy.

New non-invasive test to detect bladder cancer could spare patients cystoscopy

London: A new test for bladder cancer could enable GPs to test a urine sample and spare patients the discomfort of a cystoscopy in hospital, according to UCL research published today in Clinical Epigenetics. The test, called UroMark, has been developed by UCL researchers and uses cutting edge genomic sequencing to detect abnormal cancer DNA in a urine sample. The research team, led by Professor John Kelly and Dr Andy Feber (UCL Cancer Institute), identified a panel of DNA alterations which are highly specific to bladder cancer and found that when used on DNA from urine, UroMark detected bladder cancer with a high degree of accuracy (98% of cases), equivalent to a cystoscopy, currently the clinical gold standard.

Naproxen plus acid blocking drug shows promise in preventing bladder cancer

Ann Arbor: Combining naproxen and omeprazole, which reduces GI side effects in humans, prevented bladder cancer in animal model. The anti-inflammatory class of drugs NSAIDs have shown great promise in preventing cancers including colon, esophagus and skin. However, they can increase the risks of heart attacks, ulcers and rare but potentially life-threatening bleeds.

Urine test could lead to better treatment of bladder cancer

University of Birmingham. UK: Researchers at the University of Birmingham believe that a simple urine test could help to guide clinicians in the treatment of bladder cancer patients. Being able to reliably identify those patients with the most aggressive cancers early via urine tests, and expediting aggressive therapeutic strategies, may significantly improve outcomes. The scientists believe that the validation of two urinary biomarkers could spell a new way of tailoring treatment.

Smoking Associated with Elevated Risk of Developing a Second Smoking-Related Cancer

ASCO. US: An analysis of five large, prospective cohort studies indicates that lung (stage I), bladder, kidney and head and neck cancer survivors who smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day prior to their cancer diagnoses have an up to five-fold higher risk of developing a second smoking-associated cancer compared to survivors of the same cancers who never smoked.