(Reuters) -Padcev, a treatment from the American group Pfizer and the Japanese company Astellas, combined with Keytruda from the American laboratory Merck, reduces the risk of recurrence, tumor progression or death in patients with bladder cancer, the companies concerned announced on Saturday.
The late-stage trial included patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), who were ineligible for or declined chemotherapy with the commonly used cancer treatment cisplatin, and who received Padcev-Keytruda before and after surgery.
The combination of Padcev and Keytruda showed an improvement in event-free survival – which measures how long a patient remains safe from disease recurrence and other complications – with a 60% reduction in the risk of recurrence, tumor progression or death in these patients, compared to surgery alone. It also led to an improvement in overall survival, with a 50% reduction in the risk of death.
Halving the risk of death in this context constitutes a remarkable advance for patients whose therapeutic options are limited and who often face unfavorable prognoses, underlines Jeff Legos, in charge of oncology at Pfizer.
Bladder cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the world. MIBC, which accounts for 30% of all bladder cancers, is a type of cancer that develops in the muscular layer of the bladder wall.
(Written by Sriparna Roy in Bangalore; Claude Chendjou,)
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