Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Therapy for Non-muscle Invasive Bladder Cancers: Long-term Results of a Modified Schedule

Intravesical BCG therapy is an integral part of management of non-muscle invasive bladder cancers. Our aim is to analyze the non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients treated at our center with a modified schedule intravesical BCG therapy. Data from patients treated at our center from 2009 to 2017 was collected from patient records and analyzed. A 6-weekly 120-mg induction course followed by 6 monthly 120 mg has been used at our institute for NMIBC. Clinicopathological and treatment variables were collected. A total of 119 patients were treated at our center with a median follow-up period of 4.18 years with the above schedule. Nearly 96% patients were able to complete induction therapy and 79% completed the maintenance therapy. The 5-year recurrence-free survival was 83%. The recurrence and progression rates were 16.8% and 4.2% respectively. About 60% of the patients suffered from side effects of BCG with 11% having class 3 or 4 toxicity. Our regimen of monthly maintenance intravesical BCG for 6 months shows good control rates with high compliance, similar to those of other contemporary series, although with higher incidence of high-grade toxicity.