Dr Simon Crabb
SOUTHAMPTON is to help spearhead an international trial which will look to help improve the lives of bladder cancer patients.
The first UK patients have now been recruited to take part in tests looking at whether an immunotherapy treatment could improve the long-term outcomes following radiotherapy for those suffering from the disease.
Named the BL-13 trial, it is being led by Dr Simon Crabb at the CRUK Southampton Clinical Trials Unit, based within the University of Southampton’s Centre for Cancer Immunology.
Around 10,000 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year in the UK. If the cancer has invaded the muscle wall of the bladder, patients require treatment with chemotherapy followed by either a course of radiotherapy or a cystectomy (surgery to remove the bladder), a procedure which may impact on their quality of life.