A combination of two existing chemotherapy drugs has been used to fight bladder cancer successfully for the first time in Singapore. This new union of the two “off-label” drugs – gemcitabine and docetaxel – was offered from October 2023 specifically to patients who...
Dr Tan Yu Guang using an ultrasound scan to show patient Tony Wong that the cancer in his bladder is gone.A combination of two existing chemotherapy drugs has been used to fight bladder cancer successfully for the first time in Singapore.
Gemcitabine disrupts DNA formation and slows or stops the growth of cancer cells. It is used to treat testicular, breast, ovarian, non-small cell lung and pancreatic cancers.Dr Tan Yu Guang, an associate consultant at Singapore General Hospital’s department of urology, said the drugs are delivered to the bladder via the urinary tract, and the treatment for the induction period is every week for six weeks before the patient is treated once a month for the rest of the period.
He added that the quality of life after such surgery is also poor because of high complication rates and prolonged hospital stays. The international urological community has therefore identified “an urgent unmet need in BCG-failure patients, especially those who cannot undergo radical surgery”. The High-Risk Bladder Cancer Clinic, established at SGH in October 2023 to standardise care for the 40 to 50 new high-risk bladder cancer patients each year, aims to advance the understanding of the disease and find novel treatments to improve patient outcomes while keeping costs low.
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