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Health Dictionary

Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.

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Bladder cancer medical therapy

Introduction

Overview

Overview

The predominant therapy for bladder cancer is surgical resection. Adjunctive chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy may be required.

Medical Therapy

Medical Therapy

Immunotherapy

  • Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy that uses the immune system to help destroy cancer cells.[1]
  • Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG)
  • Immunotherapy by intravesicular delivery of Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) is often used to treat and prevent the recurrence of superficial tumors.[2]
  • BCG is a vaccine against tuberculosis that is prepared from attenuated live Mycobacterium bovis, that has lost its virulence in humans. BCG immunotherapy is effective in up to 2/3 of the cases at this stage, and in randomized trials has been shown to be superior to standard chemotherapy.[3]
  • The mechanism by which BCG prevents recurrence is unknown, but the presence of bacteria in the bladder may trigger a localized immune reaction which clears residual cancer cells.

Chemotherapy

  • During intravesical chemotherapy, the drugs are placed into the bladder through a urinary catheter.[4][5]
  • Intravesical chemotherapy may be given instead of BCG or if the bladder cancer doesn’t respond to BCG.[6]
  • Mitomycin is the drug most often used in intravesical chemotherapy.[7][8]
  • Systemic chemotherapy
  • During systemic chemotherapy, the drugs are given intravenously.
  • Systemic chemotherapy may be a treatment option for bladder cancer that has spread to other tissues near the bladder and bladder cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.[9]
  • Chemotherapy is recommended before a radical cystectomy (called neoadjuvant chemotherapy) for many people with bladder cancer that has grown into the muscle layer of the bladder wall. It is also often given after a radical cystectomy (called adjuvant chemotherapy) to people with high-risk features such as cancer that has spread to lymph nodes.[10]

Radiation therapy

  • Palliative radiation therapy may be given to relieve symptoms caused by advanced bladder cancer.[13]
References

References

  1. ↑ Ghahestani SM, Shakhssalim N (2009). “Palliative treatment of intractable hematuria in context of advanced bladder cancer: a systematic review”. Urol J. 6 (3): 149–56. PMID 19711266.
  2. ↑ Alexandroff AB, Jackson AM, O’Donnell MA, James K (May 1999). “BCG immunotherapy of bladder cancer: 20 years on”. Lancet. 353 (9165): 1689–94. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(98)07422-4. PMID 10335805.
  3. ↑ Lamm, Donald L.; Blumenstein, Brent A.; Crawford, E. David; Montie, James E.; Scardino, Peter; Grossman, H. Barton; Stanisic, Thomas H.; Smith Jr, Joseph A.; Sullivan, Jerry; Sarosdy, Michael F.; Crissman, John D.; Coltman, Charles A. (1991). “A Randomized Trial of Intravesical Doxorubicin and Immunotherapy with Bacille Calmette–Guérin for Transitional-Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder”. New England Journal of Medicine. 325 (17): 1205–9. doi:10.1056/NEJM199110243251703. PMC 1164610. PMID 1922207.
  4. ↑ Bladder Cancer. Canadian Cancer Society 2015. http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-type/bladder/treatment/?region=ab Accessed on October, 7 2015
  5. ↑ Porten SP, Leapman MS, Greene KL (2015). “Intravesical chemotherapy in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer”. Indian J Urol. 31 (4): 297–303. doi:10.4103/0970-1591.166446. PMC 4626913. PMID 26604440.
  6. ↑ Shen Z, Shen T, Wientjes MG, O’Donnell MA, Au JL (July 2008). “Intravesical treatments of bladder cancer: review”. Pharm. Res. 25 (7): 1500–10. doi:10.1007/s11095-008-9566-7. PMC 2440939. PMID 18369709.
  7. ↑ Volpe A, Racioppi M, D’Agostino D, Cappa E, Filianoti A, Bassi PF (June 2010). “Mitomycin C for the treatment of bladder cancer”. Minerva Urol Nefrol. 62 (2): 133–44. PMID 20562793.
  8. ↑ Williams SK, Hoenig DM, Ghavamian R, Soloway M (April 2010). “Intravesical therapy for bladder cancer”. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 11 (6): 947–58. doi:10.1517/14656561003657145. PMID 20205607.
  9. ↑ Rose TL, Milowsky MI (May 2016). “Improving Systemic Chemotherapy for Bladder Cancer”. Curr Oncol Rep. 18 (5): 27. doi:10.1007/s11912-016-0512-2. PMID 26984414.
  10. ↑ Teply BA, Kim JJ (2014). “Systemic therapy for bladder cancer – a medical oncologist’s perspective”. J Solid Tumors. 4 (2): 25–35. doi:10.5430/jst.v4n2p25. PMC 4232954. PMID 25404954.
  11. ↑ Konski A, Feigenberg S, Chow E (April 2005). “Palliative radiation therapy”. Semin. Oncol. 32 (2): 156–64. PMID 15815960.
  12. ↑ Kaufman DS, Shipley WU, Althausen AF (February 1992). “Radiotherapy and chemotherapy in invasive bladder cancer with potential bladder sparing”. Hematol. Oncol. Clin. North Am. 6 (1): 179–94. PMID 1556049.
  13. ↑ Byun SJ, Kim JH, Oh YK, Kim BH (December 2015). “Concurrent chemoradiotherapy improves survival outcome in muscle-invasive bladder cancer”. Radiat Oncol J. 33 (4): 294–300. doi:10.3857/roj.2015.33.4.294. PMC 4707212. PMID 26756029.

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Steven C. Campbell, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Farima Kahe M.D. [2]