Patients who experienced any type of skin toxicity were more likely to benefit from EV treatment than those who did not. A team led by Hopkins oncologist Jean Hoffman-Censits, M.D., recently made an unusual discovery. It has to do with a drug called enfortumab vedotin (EV), which is in a novel class of chemotherapy agents called antibody-drug conjugates (ADC).

“Unlike traditional chemotherapy, ADCs circulate in the bloodstream until the antibody portion finds its target on cancer cells, and then it releases the drug directly into the cancer environment,” says Hoffman-Censits. “EV is a powerful tool for use in bladder cancer – particularly as it is effective against the most aggressive forms.”

In a retrospective study, the team analyzed data from Hopkins patients treated with more than one dose of EV. Of 56 patients, about 48 percent had some degree of skin toxicity (a range of symptoms ranging from mild rash and itching to blisters and peeling).

In this study, unexpectedly, skin side effects turned out to be a plus! “Our group noted that patients who experienced any type of skin toxicity were more likely to have improvement in their cancer from EV treatment than those who did not,” Hoffman-Censits says. This work was published in European Urology Open Science, and “we are working to validate these findings in a larger study and to elucidate mechanisms of this effect.”