Intravesical chemotherapy and immunotherapy

My grandfather has bladder cancer, but fortunately it is still in the early stages. Because of his good physical condition, the doctor performed a TURBT operation on him. After that, the doctor recommended intracavitary chemotherapy for bladder cancer based on the postoperative condition, saying that it can eliminate the residual tumor. What is intracavitary chemotherapy? What are the main drugs for intracavitary chemotherapy? How to determine the course of treatment?

Intracavitary chemotherapy is a commonly used method for treating bladder cancer. It mainly involves instilling high concentrations of anticancer drugs into the bladder so that the anticancer drugs can directly act on bladder cancer in the bladder, which better preserves the patient's physiological functions. It is generally used to treat superficial bladder cancer or prevent recurrence after cystectomy.

At present, the drugs instilled into the bladder cavity mainly include immunomodulators and chemotherapy drugs. Immunomodulators include Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon (IFN), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), LAK cells, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), etc. Chemotherapy drugs mainly include mitomycin, pirarubicin, epirubicin, mitoxantrone, etc.

Intracavitary chemotherapy usually starts one week after surgery and is administered once a week for a total of 8 to 12 times. BCG infusion needs to be started at least two weeks after surgery because of its significant side effects.

Tips: TURBT recurrence

After TURBT treatment for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, approximately 50% to 70% of patients will have recurrence, and in 10% to 15% of these patients, the tumor will progress to the muscle layer.