Recent Achievements
Muscle invasive bladder carcinoma
The GU Group has successfully finished the muscle invasive bladder carcinoma study which investigated
a triplet versus standard doublet chemotherapeutic regimen (EORTC 30987). The study showed that
the triplet was well tolerated but did not add to the standard chemotherapy regimen in terms of
better outcome indicating that the implementation of novel targeted drugs needs to be considered
in order to improve the outcome of metastatic bladder carcinoma patients. A translational research
project will investigate the predictive value of expression of ERCC1 and other DNA-repair related
enzymes with respect to differential chemosensitivity to Cisplatin/Gemcitabine +/- Paclitaxel.
For metastatic patients with poor renal function another triplet chemotherapy substituting the
nephrotoxic cisplatin with carboplatin (Carboplatin, Vinblastine and Methotrexate) was compared
with a doublet (Carboplatin plus Gemcitabine) in trial 30986 (manuscript phase II part of the study
accepted in JCO).
Renal Cell carcinoma
The Interferon-alpha, IL-2 plus 5-FU study, the EORTC 30012 trial conducted together with the MRC, was closed, and a manuscript has been submitted for publication.
Testicular cancer
Two major trials have been performed in testicular cancer: the aim of one of these trials is to investigate the role of intensified, high-dose chemotherapy in patients with a poor prognosis; the
other trial is a unique worldwide trial in which the addition of Taxol to the standard regimen BEP
(bleomycin, etoposide, cisplatin) is investigated in intermediate risk patients.