A 35-year-old member asked:
is bcg treatment for bladder cancer the same as chemotherapy?
2 doctor answers
Dr. Moez Khorsandi answered
26 years experience Urology
No: Treatment with BCG is a form of localized immunotherapy for bladder cancer but it is not chemotherapy. It involves placement of a medicine into the bladder that helps one's own immune system fight the cancer.
Answered on Feb 23, 2020
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Dr. Gurmukh Singh commented
48 years experience Pathology
If a person is immunized with BCG (a modified Tuberculosis organism) re-exposure to BCG induces a local cellular immune response. If BCG is instilled into the bladder of person with bladder cancer, after prior sensitization to BCG, the local cellular immune response may destroy tumor cells.
May 25, 2012
Dr. Terence Chapman answered
25 years experience Urologic Oncology
No: Bcg is a topical therapy that is essentially a type of immune based therapy applied only to bladder cells. Traditional chemotherapy is given intravenously and thus all body cells are exposed. Some chemotherapy drugs can be given topically like BCG and probably exert their effect via typical cancer cell-killing compared to immune stimulating effects of BCG similarly administered.
Answered on Feb 23, 2020
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A 33-year-old member asked:
Dr. Moez Khorsandi answered
26 years experience Urology
Possibly: Bcg and chemotherapy are 2 entirely different forms of therapy for bladder cancer and for different types of bladder cancer. In the initial phase of t ... Read More
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A 76-year-old male asked:
Dr. Ed Friedlander answered
43 years experience Pathology
I'd do it: The altered urothelium in which bladder cancer arises is never really returned to normal. I'm glad you've gotten good results so far.
A 30-year-old member asked:
Dr. Gurmukh Singh answered
48 years experience Pathology
Localized immune rea: Ction. If a person is immunized with BCG (a modified tuberculosis organism) re-exposure to BCG induces a local cellular immune response. If BCG is i ... Read More
A 29-year-old member asked:
Dr. Terence Chapman answered
25 years experience Urologic Oncology
Yes: Bcg is intended for use of "superficial" bladder cancer, ie, cancer that has not invaded into the muscle of the bladder (carcinoma in situ, ta or t1 s ... Read More
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