
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.
This trial was comparing best and vinflunine with best supportive care alone for advanced cancer of the urinary tract.
The urinary tract includes the
Cancer that spreads to another part of the body is called advanced cancer. It is usually more difficult to treat. Doctors often give chemotherapy but sometimes the cancer continues to grow.
Some people have another course of chemotherapy () if their first course hasn’t helped. But there is no
second line treatment for advanced cancer of the urinary tract, so treatment varies. Many people have what is called ‘best supportive care’. This means treatment to help with symptoms they are having.
Doctors thought that a chemotherapy drug called vinflunine might be useful for advanced urinary tract cancer. But they were not sure how well it would work.
The aim of this trial was to compare best supportive care and vinflunine with best supportive care alone, to see which was better as second line treatment for advanced urinary tract cancer.
The trial team found that on average, people who had vinflunine and best supportive care lived longer than people who had best supportive care alone.
The trial recruited 370 people who had already had other chemotherapy including a
On average, people having vinflunine had 3 cycles of treatment. The side effects included a drop in the number of blood cells, fatigue, constipation, mild hair loss and reactions at the injection site. Although fatigue is a common side effect of chemotherapy, in this trial the researchers found that nearly 1 in 5 people having best supportive care alone also had fatigue.
The average length of time that people lived after treatment was more than 2 and a half months longer in the group who had vinflunine.
From these results, the researchers say that vinflunine could become a standard second line treatment for cancer of the urinary tract.
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 () but may not have been published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Prof Nick James
Pierre Fabre Medicament
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.