Conditions: Distal Urethral Cancer Proximal Urethral Cancer Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder Stage II Bladder Cancer Stage III Bladder Cancer Urethral Cancer Associated With Invasive Bladder Cancer
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 32
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this research study is to find out what effects, good and/or bad, dose-dense (every 14 days) chemotherapy with gemcitabine (gemcitabine hydrochloride) and cisplatin given before surgery have on patients and their muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Detailed description:
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To assess the rate of complete response (pT0) at cystectomy following preoperative dose dense gemcitabine and cisplatin (DD GC) in patients with muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To assess the toxicity profile of DD GC when given in the neoadjuvant setting: To define the number of patients who complete all three cycles of treatment without dose reduction, and to describe the incidence of toxicity.

II. To assess the 5 year overall and relapse free survival in patients who receive neoadjuvant DD GC.

TERTIARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To evaluate tissue specimens from patients to assess for molecular markers that correlate with clinical outcome.

OUTLINE:

Patients receive gemcitabine hydrochloride intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes on day 1 and cisplatin IV on day 1 or divided over days 1 and 2. Treatment repeats every 14 days for 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Beginning 3-8 weeks after chemotherapy, patients undergo radical cystectomy.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up for 5 years.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients receive gemcitabine hydrochloride IV over 30 minutes on day 1 and cisplatin IV on day 1 or divided over days 1 and 2. Treatment repeats every 14 days for 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Beginning 3-8 weeks after chemotherapy, patients undergo radical cystectomy.

Interventions: intervention 1: gemcitabine hydrochloride intervention 2: cisplatin intervention 3: therapeutic conventional surgery intervention 4: laboratory biomarker analysis
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Given IV intervention 2: Given IV intervention 3: Undergo radical cystectomy intervention 4: Correlative studies

Protocol document: