Inactivation of apaziquone by haematuria: implications for the design of phase III clinical trials against non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Purpose Despite positive responses in phase II clinical trials, the bioreductive prodrug apaziquone failed to achieve statistically significant activity in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer in phase III trials. Apaziquone was administered shortly after transurethral resection and here we test the hypothesis that haematuria inactivates apaziquone.