Urology
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Multicenter Study
Impact of previous bacille Calmette-Guérin failure pattern on subsequent response to bacille Calmette-Guérin plus interferon intravesical therapy.
To evaluate the effect of the bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) failure pattern in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer on the subsequent response to intravesical immunotherapy. ⋯ Patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer with disease recurrence more than 1 year after BCG treatment and who were treated with low-dose BCG plus interferon-alpha had response rates similar to those of BCG-N patients treated with regular-dose BCG plus interferon. Although cystectomy should still be strongly considered, these patients might benefit from another trial with intravesical immunotherapy. In contrast, recurrence within 1 year of BCG treatment should lead to consideration of either cystectomy or alternative intravesical therapies.