The treatment of superficial bladder tumors with BCG

Abstract

Introduction: Bladder cancer is the 5th most common type of neoplasm regarding to incidence. Smoking is the primary risk factor in developing bladder cancer. Previous studies have shown that approximately 70% of the bladder tumors are nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is currently the standard conservative treatment of NMIBC. Material and methods: We performed a retrospective study, conducted during 6 years from 2010 to 2016 at the Urology Clinic of Tg-Mures County Hospital with a total of 78 patients diagnosed with NMIBC.We analyzed the following variables: age, gender, histopathological result, the number of BCG infiltration, in the first six weeks one every week, at three and six months, cystoscopy and the rate of relapse, the main criteria of evaluating the results of the treatment. Results: In the study that we conducted we had a number of 15 women (19,2%) and 63 men (80,8%). At the end of the first six weeks 89,7% of the patients completed all six infiltrations, 70,5% at 3 months and only 60,3% at 6 months. The results of cystoscopy were normal at 70,5%, 25, 6% did not have a cystoscopy performed. Patients were called for investigations first at three months, six months in the first year after finishing the therapy and then every year. In 63,8% of the patients who had the 6 month therapy, no relapse tumor was found in favor of 14,9% with relapse tumor.