A trial looking at dovitinib to treat advanced transitional cell cancer that has spread

Cancer type:

Bladder cancer

Kidney cancer

Transitional cell cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 2

This trial was for people with transitional cell cancer that had spread into the surrounding tissue (locally advanced) or to another part of the body.

More about this trial

Transitional cells Open a glossary item (also called urothelial cells) are found throughout the urinary system . You can get transitional cell cancer in the kidney, bladder or ureters.

Chemotherapy is used to treat advanced transitional cell cancer. But sometimes the cancer comes back after treatment (relapsed). Or it continues to grow during treatment (refractory). So doctors are always looking for new ways to treat advanced transitional cell cancer.

Dovitinib is a type of biological therapy called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). It works by blocking messages to cells that tell them to grow and divide. So, dovitinib might stop cancer cells from growing and spreading.

The aims of this study were to find

if dovitinib helped people with advanced transitional cell cancer
how safe it was for people with advanced transitional cell cancer

Summary of results

The trial team found that dovitinib didn’t work very well for people with advanced transitional cell carcinoma.

This was a phase 2 trial. 44 people took part and everyone had dovitinib.

There were 2 stages to this trial. At the end of the 1st stage the researchers looked at the overall number of people who had no sign of their cancer (complete response Open a glossary item ) and whose cancer had shrunk (partial response ). This is the overall response rate. The trial would only continue into stage 2 if enough people’s cancer had responded.

They found that only 1 person’s cancer had shrunk. So the decision was made to stop the trial.

The worst side effects were

a drop in blood cells
tiredness
weakness and a lack of energy

The trial team concluded that dovitinib was safe for people with advanced transitional cell carcinoma. But by itself it didn’t work well enough.

We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.