New drug to fight Aggressive Bladder Cancer

A new drug that harnesses the immune system to attack tumors is highly effective against advanced bladder cancer, according to the results of an international clinical trial. Injections of the experimental agent Atezolizumab were found to shrink tumors by at least 30 percent and stall new tumor growth in 28 of 119 (or 24 percent of) patients. All had received the medication as their initial therapy for the disease. Part of a new class of drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors, atezolizumab, also known by its brand name, Tecentriq, was last month approved by the Food and Drug Administration based on recent research from a related clinical trial presented in 2015. "Our new study results argue that atezolizumab represents a major advance in the treatment of bladder cancer," says lead study investigator and medical oncologist Arjun Balar, MD, an assistant professor at NYU Langone Medical Center.
"Atezolizumab is the first therapy to be approved in more three decades for this disease, and it is the new standard of care for patients whose initial therapy with platinum-based chemotherapy drugs has failed," says Balar. "Indeed, it may be the only therapy some patients need."