Adding Immunotherapy to Chemotherapy Regimen Improves Survival in Metastatic Bladder Cancer Patients
The first improvement for these patients; promises to be a new standard of care
A clinical trial co-led by Mount Sinai researchers is the first to show that using chemotherapy with immunotherapy resulted in improved survival in patients with an advanced type of bladder cancer. The results were simultaneously reported in The New England Journal of Medicine and at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology.
The randomized phase 3 trial, named ”CheckMate 901,” showed significantly improved outcomes in patients who received the immunotherapy nivolumab with a combination of the chemotherapies gemcitabine and cisplatin, compared to those who received the chemotherapy combination alone. The number of patients who had no evidence of disease after treatment was nearly twice as high in the group that received chemotherapy with nivolumab, a monoclonal antibody immune checkpoint inhibitor that harnesses the immune system to fight cancer.
“No new agent when added to first-line standard-of-care cisplatin-based chemotherapy has improved overall survival in metastatic urothelial carcinoma until now,” said Matthew Galsky, MD, Co-Director of the Center of Excellence for Bladder Cancer at The Tisch Cancer Institute, a part of the Tisch Cancer Center at Mount Sinai, and senior author of the publication. “These results support nivolumab plus cisplatin-based chemo as a new standard approach for the treatment of metastatic urothelial cancer.”
A total of 608 patients participated in this trial. Both overall survival and progression-free survival were higher in patients on the immunotherapy-chemotherapy regimen after almost three years. The median duration of complete response in those patients was 37.1 months compared to 13.2 months for patients on just chemotherapy.
This trial was funded by Bristol Myers Squibb in collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. The trial was an international collaboration among several institutions.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.
As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.
Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.