A trial looking at giving chemotherapy into the bladder, after surgery for kidney cancer (ODMIT C)

Cancer type:

Kidney cancer

Transitional cell cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 3

This trial was looking at giving mitomycin C into the bladder after surgery for transitional cell cancer of the kidney.

Transitional cell cancer (TCC) is a type of kidney cancer. Doctors usually treat it with surgery, but it can come back in the bladder after treatment. Mitomycin C is a chemotherapy drug used to treat several cancers, including bladder cancer. You can have it directly into the bladder as well as into a vein.

The aim of this trial was to see if giving mitomycin C into the bladder after surgery for TCC helps to prevent the cancer coming back in the bladder.

Summary of results

The research team found that giving mitomycin C (MMC) directly into the bladder after surgery for transitional cell kidney cancer did help to stop the cancer coming back.

This was a randomised trial and it recruited 284 people into one of two groups. 220 of the people taking part went on to have treatment. Of these,

105 had MMC into the bladder after surgery
115 had standard treatment after surgery, but didn’t have MMC into the bladder

The research team looked at the results one year after treatment. They found that the cancer had come back in

17 of the 105 people (16%) who had MMC
31 of the 115 people (27%) who had standard treatment

This means MMC prevented the cancer coming back in 1 person for every 9 people who had treatment. No one having MMC had any serious side effects.

The research team concluded that doctors should consider giving mitomycin C to all patients who have surgery for TCC of the kidney.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. 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. We have not analysed the data ourselves.