Conditions: Bladder Cancer
Keywords: recurrent bladder cancer stage 0 bladder cancer stage I bladder cancer transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 58
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving gemcitabine directly into the bladder may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well gemcitabine works in treating patients with recurrent bladder cancer that has progressed despite previous Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG).

Detailed description:
OBJECTIVES:

* Determine the 8-12 week efficacy of intravesical gemcitabine, in terms of complete response rate, in patients with recurrent superficial transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder that have progressed despite prior intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG).
* Determine the recurrence-free, worsening-free, progression-free, and overall survival of patients treated with this drug.
* Evaluate the toxicity of this drug in these patients.
* Correlate, preliminarily, expression levels of genes or genetic polymorphisms involved in the gemcitabine pathway and angiogenesis with clinical toxicity, response, and relapse-free survival of patients treated with this drug.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

* Induction therapy: Patients receive gemcitabine intravesically once a week for 6 weeks (weeks 1-6) in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients achieving a complete response proceed to maintenance therapy at week 14.
* Maintenance therapy: Patients receive gemcitabine intravesically once in weeks 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34, 38, 42, 46, and 50 in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for 3 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 25-45 patients will be accrued for this study within 6-12 months.

Arms:
arm 1: None

Interventions: intervention 1: gemcitabine hydrochloride
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: None

Protocol document: