Pazopanib and Vinflunine in Urothelial Cancer of the Bladder

Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder mostly is chemically induced and represents the second prevalent urooncological disease. About 20% of newly diagnosed urothelial carcinoma cases of the bladder are already advanced or metastasized. Before 2008 2009 no second line therapy after failure of primary systemic therapy of advanced / metastatic disease was established outside of clinical trials. The actual standard for this situation was a supportive, symptomatic therapy. Vinflunine has demonstrated improved survival from 4.3 to 6.9 months (p=0.04), with an adequate disease control, good symptom control and with acceptable toxicity. Based on these results, this compound became standard se¬cond line treatment for refractory metastatic bladder cancer disease after failure of platinum-containing therapy. As the prognosis still remains poor, new treatment opportunities have to be explored. The target-specific therapy with Pazopanib suggests a positive influence of both inductive and perioperative treatment of solid tumors. Pazopanib has been approved by the FDA and the EMA for the treatment of advance renal cell carcinoma. Results for advanced urothelial carcinoma are missing so far as well as data on tolerability of the combination of both vinflunine and pazopanib. As the pharmacodynamic properties as well as the safety profile of both drugs are different, assumption is justified that there might occur additive efficacy effects without addition of adverse outcomes. Aim of the study thus is 1. To define the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of Pazopanib in combination with Vinflunine in a phase-I-setting and 2. To further assess efficacy and safety of the combination at the MTD level in phase II. During the pase-I-part of the study different doses of pazopanib will be added to the standard vinflunine scheme in groups of 6 patients maximum. Dose escalation will only be performed in the next patient group if not more than one out of six patients shows dose-limiting toxicity. Each