A new study in mice by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) has identified a promising drug combination for the treatment of muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Rosiglitazone plus trametinib worked synergistically to not only induce tumor cell death, but also shift aggressive tumor cells to a more benign molecular subtype. The research team, led by Cathy Lee Mendelsohn, Ph.
D., a member of the HICCC, is hopeful about advancing to clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of this combination therapy in human patients. The study was published in Nature Communications .
Meeting an urgent demand in bladder cancer treatments "Despite recent advances, cystectomy is still the main treatment for patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer ," says Mendelsohn, professor of urological sciences (in urology) and pathology & cell biology and genetics & development (in the Institute of Human Nutrition) at Columbia University. "More recently, we have the approval of checkpoint inhibitors—but they only work on a percentage of tumors. We just need more avenues for treatment.
" Bladder cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer in the United States, with more than 83,000 new cases and 16,800 deaths per year. Most bladder cancers are non-muscle-invasive, meaning they have not yet reached the muscle wall of the bladder, and have a good prognosis. However, up to 20% of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancers can progress to muscle-invasive bladder cancer, which has a f.