The chemotherapy of advanced bladder cancer

This paper traces the development of the use of chemotherapy in the management of advanced bladder carcinoma in Europe. A number of agents, including cisplatin, methotrexate, vinblastine, adriamycin, fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide, have been investigated singly and in combination in phase II studies, and it is envisaged that an ideal combination chemotherapy regimen giving lasting complete response will ultimately be used along with limited ablative surgery in the management of localised advanced bladder cancer. Careful application of the increasing knowledge of the biology of transitional cell carcinoma and strict adherence to rigid criteria of response in the assessment of new agents appears at last to offer hope of an improvement in the prognosis of invasive bladder cancer.