RE:New Online Ad from Bladder Cancer Advocacy NetworkEoganacht wrote: There is a need for more options in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) when BCG fails Bacillus Calmette-Gurin (BCG) has remained the first-line standard of care for more than 40 years
- Though BCG can be initially effective in the first-line treatment of high-risk NMIBC, BCG will fail in more than 40% of patients
- When BCG fails, high-risk patients are more likely to progress to muscle-invasive diseases, bringing them one step closer to life-altering radical cystectomy
"The limited number of patients studied in these [therapeutic] trials, the modest and limited recurrence-free survival with treatment, and the lack of data demonstrating an improvement in progression-free survival illustrate the need for novel agents.
– AUA/SUO Guideline"
Thanks Eoganacht...& unfortunately, patients will have to continue to contend with an ongoing BCG shortage that could last for at least several more years. I believe Merck is planning to have a new manufacturing facility completed in Durham, NC by ~2026/2027.
It's boggling to me that in this modern era of Western technology & proclaimed humanity by the West that we can even be in such a position of limited availability....to a "first-line" treatment for a relatively common & devastating cancer. Such a limit gets compounded by the fact that many patients may also be subject to a need for splitting of doses (1/2 to 1/3 dose)...all of this adding even more potential insult to injury & the end result being an increase in radical cystectomies & morbidity/mortality....all imo. Interestingly, a multicenter clinical trial (NIMBUS) was recently conducted to assess the efficacy of a reduced number of instillations vs SOC. Not surprisingly, after an interim analysis, the trial had to be halted when inferior efficacy was noted in the reduced schedule arm.
Rising global demand & limited BCG supply/efficacy are here to stay for the foreseeable future...should bode well for the future of TLD-1433 imho.