The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves on Thursday the use of Bristol-Myers Opdivo to be used as bladder cancer treatment, specifically for urothelial carcinoma. It is the most common type of bladder cancer and ranks fourth as the most common type of cancer in men. Opdivo has been previously approved to treat advanced melanoma, a form of lung cancer, kidney cancer, and Hodgkin lymphoma.
Opdivo is one of a new class of chemotherapy designed to use the body's own immune system to fight cancer. Due to a large demand, and the relatively safe quality of the drug, the US FDA have decided to advance its review and accelerate its approval early this year. The new bladder cancer treatment is approved specifically for patients who have locally advanced, or metastatic urothelial carcinoma following a platinum-containing therapy, the Cure reports.
This year, experts have estimated that 76,960 adults will be diagnosed with bladder cancer in the United States. The number of men affected is 58,950, and only 18,010 of women. Furthermore, it is estimated that 16,390 deaths from this disease will occur this year.
Bladder cancer grows most often in the cells that line the inner bladder. It typically affects older adults, mostly men, though it can occur at any age. A great majority of bladder cancers can be diagnosed at an early stage when bladder cancer is highly treatable.
However, an early-stage bladder cancer can recur. This is the reason why bladder cancer survivors have to strictly undergo follow-up tests for years after treatment. It is recommended to do this to search for possible bladder cancer recurrence.
According to the Reuters, in May, the FDA is set to decide whether to approve Bristol-Myers' rival, Merck & Co, a combination of immunotherapy Keytruda and chemotherapy as first-line lung cancer drugs. The increasing rate of people with bladder and lung cancer have spurred drug makers to develop more drugs. Due to approval accelerations, patients are hopeful of better outcomes from new bladder cancer treatments available this year.
