BCG therapy the gold standard treatment for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), where the cancer has not penetrated the muscle layer is one of the earliest forms of cancer immunotherapy. Now, 50 years after it was first developed from the tuberculosis vaccine, its therapeutic power could be dramatically enhanced by combining it with a natural molecule derived from fungi, as demonstrated by a team of scientists led by Maziar Divangahi, Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (The Institute) and Professor in McGill's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
First shown to be effective in Canada in the 1970s and adopted worldwide in the 1990s, BCG therapy involves introducing a weakened strain of tuberculosis-causing bacteria directly into the bladder. This trains immune cells to recognize and attack bladder cancer cells. However, up to 60 per cent of patients see their cancer return, and the treatment, which requires multiple instillations, can cause side effects such as bladder irritation, pain and flu-like symptoms.
