Intravesical Therapy – BCG and Beyond

Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer is marked by frequent recurrences and a risk for progression to life threatening disease. Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), one of the earliest effective immunotherapies for cancer, remains the current standard for treating high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Optimal treatment with BCG includes periodic 3 weekly maintenance instillations, often with dose reduction to minimize toxicity. However, despite its efficacy, treatment failure is common. Efforts to provide alternate and potentially more effective therapy for this disease include increased understanding of bladder cancer through molecular profiling, multi-agent intravesical chemotherapy, and novel forms of immunotherapy.