UKB resident awarded the C. E. Alken Prize for excellent scientific uro-oncological analysis

Dr. Niklas Klümper, resident on the Clinic for Urology and dealing group chief on the Institute for Experimental Oncology on the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), was awarded the C. E. Alken Prize in recognition of his excellent scientific uro-oncological work. The 30 -year-old is investigating which sufferers with metastatic bladder most cancers profit from a brand new oncological type of remedy, the antibody-drug conjugates, so as to have the ability to use these promising medicine effectively. His new findings had been printed this December within the famend oncology journal Clinical Cancer Research.

Chemotherapies used to deal with aggressive superior and metastatic urothelial carcinoma are sometimes related to many negative effects. Recently, a brand new class of medication, known as antibody-drug conjugates, have been accredited for sufferers with metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Antibody-drug conjugates include an antibody directed towards the tumour cell floor conjugated with a extremely poisonous chemotherapeutic agent. This combines the selectivity of focused antibody remedy with the cytotoxic potential of typical chemotherapy, representing an progressive and new oncological therapeutic method.

Use of antibody-drug conjugates

The Department of Urology on the UKB can also be utilizing this new drug to deal with sufferers with metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Enfortumab vedotin is the primary accredited antibody-drug conjugate and a really promising drug for the therapy of sufferers with metastatic urothelial carcinoma. However, we nonetheless perceive little about who actually advantages from this remedy, which may additionally trigger extreme negative effects reminiscent of pores and skin irritation or nerve issues.”

Dr. Niklas Klümper, assistant doctor on the Clinic for Urology on the UKB

Targeted remedy doesn’t attain all tumor cells

“We had been capable of present for the primary time that the floor molecule for the focused supply of the chemotherapeutic agent in metastatic urothelial carcinoma is usually decreased or absent. Lack of this floor construction, which may be detected by typical immunohistochemistry, is related to resistance to enfortumab vedotin, so these sufferers could also be higher handled with various therapies. Our work is subsequently a step in the direction of precision oncology for sufferers with metastatic urothelial carcinoma”, says Dr Klümper. His aim is to make sure that these probably poisonous medicine are solely used for sufferers who also can profit from the remedy.

Award for excellent analysis

For his extremely related findings for extra exact remedy of urological tumour sufferers, Dr. Klümper was awarded the celebrated C. E. Alken Prize in November 2022. The C. E. Alken Foundation promotes medical and experimental analysis in urology by awarding an annual prize for excellent scientific work to wonderful German-speaking researchers who’ve made a big contribution to the sector of urology. “This award is of excellent significance within the urology area. The indisputable fact that Dr. Klümper receives this award as a younger resident is particular and speaks as soon as once more for his vital and extremely progressive analysis into the remedy of bladder most cancers,” says Prof Manuel Ritter, Director of the Clinic for Urology and Paediatric Urology on the UKB.

Dr. Klümpers’ experiences with the brand new drug, which could possibly be extremely related for therapy, are shared with a community of different college hospitals and clinics as a part of the research, in order that they attain as many sufferers as attainable as a remedy optimisation.