For over twenty years, Dr. Thomas Powles, a urologist at Queen Mary University of London, has been dedicated to improving survival rates for bladder cancer patients. Despite being neglected and overlooked for many years, he remained determined to find effective treatments for this disease. In 2023, Powles conducted a study testing a new combination of treatments that combined a medication that boosts the immune system with an antibody targeted to bladder cancer cells carrying a chemotherapy agent.
To his surprise, the new drug combination more than doubled the median survival rate of patients, bringing newfound attention and hope to the field of bladder cancer research. The once dismissed and overlooked disease is now receiving recognition and optimism. Powles believes that this approach could lead to even more effective treatments for bladder cancer and potentially other hard-to-treat cancers like head and neck and certain types of breast cancer. He envisions a future where bladder cancer can be cured using this innovative approach.
