This has emerged from a study by the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital. The immunotherapy does not focus on the tumor, but on strengthening the immune system of the patient. Bladder cancer often returns after surgery and the immunotherapy should ‘minimize the chance of recurrence’.
Improve perspective
“For bladder cancer that has advanced to this stage, especially the patients who already have lymph node metastases, there are no good treatment options. The findings in this study can hopefully improve the perspective for these patients,” says internist-oncologist Michiel van der Heijden.
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What is neoadjuvant immunotherapy?
Neoadjuvant means that you will receive this additional treatment before the other treatment. Neoadjuvant immunotherapy is given before surgery. The goal is to shrink the tumor so that it is easier to remove.
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The results of the survey are positive. The study included 24 patients with locally metastatic bladder cancer. That means that the tumor had not yet spread through the bloodstream.
Tumors got smaller
23 of the patients were able to undergo surgery within 12 weeks, so no time was wasted using the immunotherapy. Most tumors had even shrunk considerably.
After surgery, cancer cells were no longer visible on the tissue in 11 of the patients. In two patients, the disease returned within a year, which, according to the researchers, is less than can be expected.
Neoadjuvant immunotherapy will not be used in practice for the time being, because more research needs to be done into the correct proportions of the therapy.
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