A trial looking at vinflunine chemotherapy for advanced bladder, kidney or ureter cancer (L00070 IN 302 P1)

Cancer type:

Bladder cancer

Kidney cancer

Transitional cell cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 3

This trial was comparing best supportive care Open a glossary item and vinflunine with best supportive care alone for advanced cancer of the urinary tract.

The urinary tract includes the

Centre of the kidney (renal pelvis)
Ureter – the tube that takes urine from the kidney to the bladder
Bladder

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 (second line treatment Open a glossary item ) if their first course hasn’t helped. But there is no standard 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.

Summary of results

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 platinum drug Open a glossary item

Two thirds had vinflunine and best supportive care
One third had best supportive care alone

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 (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) 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.