The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval to atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the treatment of people with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) who are not eligible for cisplatin chemotherapy.

Atezolizumab was previously approved for people with locally advanced or mUC who have disease progression during or following any platinum-containing chemotherapy, or within 12 months of receiving chemotherapy before surgery (neoadjuvant) or after surgery (adjuvant).

Today’s approval of atezolizumab is based on the phase II IMvigor210 study.

It is not known if atezolizumab is safe and effective in children.

Bladder cancer is the most common type of urothelial carcinoma, and up to half of all people with the advanced form of the disease are unable to receive cisplatin chemotherapy as an initial treatment and therefore have a high unmet medical need.

Urothelial carcinoma also includes cancers of the urethra, ureters and renal pelvis.

“It is encouraging to see continued progress in the treatment of advanced bladder cancer, which until last year had not seen any major advancements in more than 30 years,” said Andrea Maddox Smith, chief executive officer, Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network. “We are excited that atezolizumab is now a treatment option for people with advanced bladder cancer who are unable to receive a cisplatin-based chemotherapy as an initial treatment.”

The FDA’s Accelerated Approval Program allows conditional approval of a medicine that fills an unmet medical need for a serious condition, based on early evidence suggesting clinical benefit.

The indication for atezolizumab is approved under accelerated approval based on tumour response rate and duration of response.

Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

Source: BusinessWire