Living with advanced bladder cancer is a heavy burden, and finding a treatment that works effectively is vital for every patient. A review of 17 studies looked at how the drug enfortumab vedotin affects men and women with advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. The goal was to see if sex influenced how well the treatment worked over time.
The data showed that women had a significantly better progression-free survival compared to men. This means that, during the study period, women were less likely to see their cancer progress. However, the researchers noted that the evidence for this specific finding is very limited. They also found no significant difference between men and women when looking at overall survival.
While the results for women are promising, the study had some hurdles. There was a moderate risk of bias and a lot of publication bias regarding the progression-free survival data. Additionally, there was very little data available to confirm results for other measures like disease-free survival or cancer-specific survival. Because the evidence is limited, these findings are currently a starting point for understanding how this treatment affects different patients.
