Jan 10 (Reuters) - Pfizer's ( PFE ) experimental

treatment for a type of bladder cancer significantly improved

the time that patients remained free of certain complications,

including cancer recurrence, the drugmaker said on Friday

following data from a late-stage study.

The antibody treatment, sasanlimab, in combination with

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine met the main goal of the

study in patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder

cancer (NMIBC) who have not received the vaccine for the cancer.

NMIBC accounts for about half of all newly diagnosed bladder

cancer cases, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).

Pfizer ( PFE ) said it plans to present the data at an upcoming

medical meeting and discuss it with global health regulators for

a potential approval.

The drug is an anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, the same class

of treatment as Merck's ( MRK ) Keytruda, which helps the body's

immune system detect and attack tumors.

The safety profile of sasanlimab was consistent with that of

other PD-1 inhibitors, Pfizer ( PFE ) said.

In the study, patients were randomly chosen to receive a 300

milligram dose of sasanlimab as an under-the-skin injection in

combination with the BCG vaccine, or just the BCG vaccine alone.

The BCG vaccine, mainly used to prevent tuberculosis, is

also a standard treatment for some forms of bladder cancer.

Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved

ImmunityBio's ( IBRX ) immunotherapy Anktiva to treat patients

with NMIBC, which is unresponsive to the BCG vaccine.

ACS estimates bladder cancer, which typically occurs in

older people, accounts for about 4% of the cancer cases in the

United States.