A new strategy for treating bladder cancer seems to be bearing fruit, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Bladder cancer has historically been difficult to treat, but now a new strategy involving hooking a custom made antibody to a drug seems to be extending survival. Known as antibody/drug conjugates, William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, is optimistic about their use.

Nelson: You can use the antibody as a delivery system for something that might more broadly kill cancer cells. This particular one is a drug against something called nectin four. It's been out there a bit and it's been very promising in bladder cancer, and they've stuck a toxic substance on it. Whatt they're reporting was the results of a clinical trial, pretty large one and it's 880 or more folks participated in the randomized trial. Along with one of the immune checkpoint inhibitors improved the median survival, how long half the people lived from 16 months to almost 32 months.     :33

Nelson says this is a step forward toward improving bladder cancer survival. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.