Researchers announce clinical trial results for hard-to-treat breast and bladder cancers

Professors Tom Powles and Peter Schmid recently delivered results from their phase three clinical trials during Sunday’s Presidential Symposium to over 30,000 attendees at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2024.

The results of both trials, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that innovative chemotherapy-immunotherapy drug combinations improve survival in two aggressive, hard-to-treat cancers: triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Professor Schmid shared results from the Phase III KEYNOTE-522 trial, which involved 1,174 patients from 21 countries. He showed that giving patients with high-risk early-stage triple-negative breast cancer the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab before and after surgery in combination with chemotherapy reduces the risk of their cancer coming back and improves overall survival.

Speaking on the results, Professor Schmid said, “Triple-negative breast cancer has the worst outcomes compared to other types of breast cancer. The results of this trial have found a much-needed new way to treat this aggressive type of breast cancer, and the treatment regime has already become the new standard of care for these patients.”

In the same session, Professor Powles shared results from the phase three NIAGARA study. His trial, which spanned 22 countries and involved over 1,000 patients, showed that combining the immunotherapy drug durvalumab with chemotherapy improves survival in people with muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Professor Powles said, “Treating aggressive bladder cancer before it spreads is perhaps our best chance of a cure. In NIAGARA, we show for the first time that the addition of immune therapy to chemotherapy increases this cure rate. This is a major step forward for these patients.”