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Featured Clinical Trials

Cancer Studies Highlighted in the NCI Cancer Bulletin
  • Posted: 12/07/2004
  • Updated: 04/26/2007

Preventing Bladder Cancer Recurrence and Progression

Name of the Trial

Phase II Randomized Study of Adjuvant Erlotinib and Green Tea Extract (Polyphenon E) in Preventing Recurrence and Progression in Former Smokers with Resected High-Grade Superficial Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder (UCLA-0301091-02). See the protocol summary 1.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Arie Belldegrun of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA

Dr. Arie Belldegrun
Dr. Arie Belldegrun
Principal Investigator

Why This Trial Is Important

Most patients diagnosed with bladder cancer have tumors that have not penetrated the muscle of the bladder wall (superficial bladder cancer). Even with successful surgery, however, recurrence is common.

Researchers are interested in developing effective drug therapies to prevent bladder cancer recurrence after surgery. The use of drugs to prevent cancer or cancer recurrence is called chemoprevention. In this study, two types of drugs are being evaluated to see whether they are effective in preventing bladder cancer recurrence and progression after surgery in patients with a history of smoking.

One of the drugs, Polyphenon E (Mitsui Norin Co. Ltd.), is made from green tea. "Preclinical studies have shown that substances called catechins in green tea extracts are very good at preventing bladder cancer cells from multiplying," said Dr. Belldegrun.

The other drug, erlotinib (Tarceva, OSI Pharmaceuticals), which was recently approved to treat lung cancer, inhibits a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Approximately 50 percent of bladder tumors show high levels of EGFR, and EGFR expression has been associated with bladder tumor aggressiveness.

"With this study, we hope to find a way to prevent recurrence and, more importantly, to prevent progression of bladder cancer in patients with a history of smoking," Dr. Belldegrun added.

Contact Information

This trial is no longer accepting new patients. To locate other clinical trials for bladder cancer, search the NCI's database of clinical trials 2 or call the NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237). The call is toll-free and completely confidential.

Related Pages



Glossary Terms

epidermal growth factor receptor (eh-pih-DER-mul grothe FAK-ter reh-SEP-ter)
The protein found on the surface of some cells and to which epidermal growth factor binds, causing the cells to divide. It is found at abnormally high levels on the surface of many types of cancer cells, so these cells may divide excessively in the presence of epidermal growth factor. Also called EGFR, ErbB1, and HER1.
preclinical study (pree-KLIH-nih-kul STUH-dee)
Research using animals to find out if a drug, procedure, or treatment is likely to be useful. Preclinical studies take place before any testing in humans is done.
recurrence (ree-KER-ents)
Cancer that has recurred (come back), usually after a period of time during which the cancer could not be detected. The cancer may come back to the same place as the original (primary) tumor or to another place in the body. Also called recurrent cancer.

Table of Links

1http://cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/UCLA-0301091-02
2http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/search
3http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/bladder