Homegrown therapy shows promise against urothelial carcinoma

A domestically developed therapy for urothelial carcinoma — a cancer affecting the lining of the urinary system that was diagnosed in more than 90,000 people in China in 2022 — can significantly improve treatment outcomes and offer new hope to patients, experts said recently.

Urothelial carcinoma affects both the upper and lower urinary tract and is the most common type of bladder cancer. Official data show that China recorded 92,900 new cases and more than 40,000 related deaths in 2022.

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma accounted for 17.9 percent of all cases, significantly higher than the 5 to 10 percent typically seen in Western countries.

Guo Jun, vice-president of Peking University Cancer Hospital, said a treatment regimen combining the homegrown drug disitamab vedotin with another domestically developed anti-tumor drug, toripalimab, has demonstrated significant advantages over conventional chemotherapy in patients with advanced-stage disease.

He made the remarks during an academic conference held by the urothelial carcinoma committee of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology in Beijing last week.

The novel regimen can double overall survival, progression-free survival and objective response rates among patients with untreated HER2-expressing locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, he said.

The study results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in October last year, marking China's first original research article in the field of urological oncology to appear in the journal. Guo participated in the study.

Sheng Xi'nan, a professor at Peking University Cancer Hospital and the study's lead researcher, said Chinese scientists have not only achieved breakthroughs in clinical efficacy but have also pioneered the world's first HER2 expression scoring criteria specifically for urothelial carcinoma.

The findings have been repeatedly validated in studies involving European and US populations, he added.

Yu Nengwang, head of the urology department at Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, said China's research capabilities in urothelial carcinoma have improved significantly, and the country's innovative and original treatment approaches have attracted global attention.