Bladder Cancer Vaccines 2023
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Fact checked by Robert Carlson, MD
Bladder Cancer Vaccine May 2023
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, the Canadia, and the United Kingdom NHS say bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination has shown positive results against types of bladder cancer, such as nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). In the 1970s, the BCG vaccine was approved as an immunotherapeutic treatment for bladder cancer patients. Since then, BCG has been the standard therapy for treating high-risk NMIBC patients to avoid the recurrence and progression of the disease.
With intravesical therapy for Bladder Cancer, a liquid drug (BCG) is inserted into your bladder through a tube (urinary catheter rather than giving it by mouth or injecting it into your blood, says Cancer.org. Drugs administered directly into the bladder affect the cells lining the inside of the bladder and have little to no effect on cells elsewhere. This means that intravesical therapy doesn't treat cancer cells outside the bladder lining, including those that have grown deeply into the bladder wall.
An abstract presented at the European Association of Urology 2022 Annual Meeting reported BCG vaccination nearly halved the risk of progression among patients with NMIBC compared with transurethral resection of the bladder, but only among those at high risk.
A report published in February 2023 estimates that more than 8,300 patients a year are not receiving full BCG treatments for their bladder cancer. Notably, 20% of the organizations reported not being able to provide any BCG to patients who were eligible for therapy.
Bladder Cancer Vaccine Candidates 2023
ImmunityBio's Anktiva™ N-803 Plus BCG vaccine is a therapy to treat adults with NMIBC carcinoma in situ with or without Ta/T1 papillary disease.
Bladder Cancer Vaccine Availability
Manufacturing changes in the production of BCG vaccines have resulted in worldwide shortages. Therefore, BCG constraints have had a clinical impact on Bladder Cancer treatment. Because of this situation, NMIBC patients might have received fewer doses of BCG than those recommended, might have received instillations of different BCG substrains depending on the BCG availability in each region, might have received a reduced length of standard maintenance therapy, and so forth.
In Australia, intravesical immunotherapy (BCG) is approved.
Bladder Cancer Vaccine News 2023
February 17, 2023 - CNN reported: Thousands of people can't get full treatments of a lifesaving cancer drug.
February 2023 - The current BCG vaccine producer market only produces 69% of the estimated need based on the 2018 baseline volume and an assumed annual bladder cancer growth rate of 2.5%.
January 9, 2023 - The N-803 Plus BCG vaccination in patients with Bladder Cancer was found effective.
November 22, 2022 - A new clinical trial for muscle-invasive bladder cancer, currently underway at Houston Methodist, is hoping to radically speed things up. In situ vaccination is a cutting-edge strategy in cancer research.
September 20, 2022 - Ludwig Enterprises announced that it had started discussions regarding initiating a clinical study to evaluate the response of bladder cancer patients to BCG immunotherapy.
August 29, 2022 - The National Cancer Institute published: Common Form of Bladder Cancer, Chemo Combo Effective Alternative to BCG.
March 13, 2019 - Merck recognizes the impact the current availability of TICE BCG is having on patients and their caregivers and today provided an update on the company's long-term commitment to maintain increased production of and access to TICE BCG.
September 18, 2009 - A study reported anti-tumor responses induced by recombinant BCG vaccines based on different tandem repeats of MUC1 and GM-CSF. A single dose of M. Bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin immunotherapy has a therapeutic benefit in treating a non-invasive form of bladder cancer. It is administered intravesically, and proven benefits include the malignancy's delay and prevention of progression.
