• sarag

    Member
    January 12, 2022 at 12:28 am

    Joea73,
    Thank you profoundly for taking the time to provide me with such an informative and clear reply.

    God bless you,

    Sara

  • joea73

    Member
    January 12, 2022 at 12:17 am

    It may not be directly related, but when the pandemic just started, there were questions from patients community if intravesical BCG affects COVID-19 in anyway.   I followed up this subject by watching several webinars by urologists discussing potential implication of covid-19 to bladder cancer patients.  Most urologists commended there should not be any affects.   Dr. Gary Steinburg of NYU said if there were it would be positive affect.  I assume that Dr. Steinburg was thinking that intravesical BCG kills cancer cells by invoking immune activities.    BCG vaccine has been known to provide protection not only for tuberculosis but also for other infectious diseases such as yellow fever and pneumonia, and immune activity by BCG  has shown long durability.   For Covid-19, many researchers have observed that those countries with compulsory BCG vaccination programs displayed reduced death rate, i.e. up to 10 times less, compared to those countries such as India with no BCG vaccination program.  Accordingly multiple clinical trials had started back in 2020 to see if BCG vaccination will reduce serious disease by Covid-19.   One such clinical trial was started by Dr. Ashish Kamat of MD Andersons for health care workers.   We should expect the result sometime this year.    It may be a mute point now as drug companies were able to develop vaccines for Covid-19 but at the onset of the pandemic,  some general doctors in Japan tried to hoard intravesical BCG when the news of possible benefit of BCG vaccine against COVID-19.  Tokyo BCG company stopped selling intravesical BCG for general doctors as the concern for intravesical BCG shortage for bladder cancer. 

    In terms of the effect of BCG vaccine against cancers including bladder cancer, a study was conducted in the US with 60 years follow up involving about 3,000 people (about 1500 with BCG vaccine and about 1500 in the placebo group).   The result showed that it reduced the occurrence of lung cancer but made no difference in other cancers including bladder cancer.  

     https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04348370     –  Clinical Trial to test if BCG vaccine reduces severity of CONVID-19

    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2751896  – Study if BCG vaccine prevents cancers

    best

  • sarag

    Member
    January 5, 2022 at 7:03 pm

    Thank you so so much you guys for taking the time to weight in. I really appreciate it.

    Best,

    Sara

  • Alan

    Member
    January 5, 2022 at 1:56 pm

    I simply agree with Jack. If one has high grade BC, then BCG is the “gold” standard for treatment.


    DX 5/6/2008 TAG3 papillary tumor .5 CM in size. 2 TURBS followed by 6 instillations of BCG weekly with a second round of 6 after a 6 week wait.
  • jack-r

    Member
    January 5, 2022 at 7:34 am

    Sarag,

    Much depends upon the meaning of the term “vaccine”.

    First, to eliminate a possible misunderstanding of term: “BCG remains the most important vaccine for tuberculosis…”, Donald Lamm, et al, This refers to BCG being introduced into the upper arm.   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34417051/

    For noninvasive bladder cancer, intravesical (inside the bladder) BCG immunotherepy is a widely used and highly successful treatment.

    I have had multiple rounds of intravesical BCG, and have read a couple of discussions considering applying BCG as used for TB vaccination, but I have neither read not had it suggested that BCG vaccination was generally beneficial.

    I have accepted and would recommend intravesical BCG.

    I would want to review the literature for “BCG vaccination ” and “Bladder cancer” very thoroughly and have such a recomendation fully explained to me. 

    We all face choices and unknowns on our cancer journey. Choices are as unique as our own situation.

    Best,
    Jack


    6/2015 HG Papillary & CIS
    3 Years and 30 BCG/BCG+Inf
    Tis CIS comes back.
    BC clear as of 5/17 !
    RCC found in my one & only kidney 10/17
    Begin Chemo; Cisplatin and Gemzar
    8/18 begin Chemo# 3
    Begin year 4 with cis
    2/19 Chemo #4
    9/19 NED again :)
    1/2020 CIS is back
    Tried Keytruda, stopped by side effects
    Workin on a new plan for 2021
  • bills

    Member
    January 5, 2022 at 7:25 am

    Hi 

    BCG is a vaccine which is used to treat Tuberculosis. Also BCG is used to treat the Bladder Carcinoma ( CIS or Papillary) which are in the initial/early stages( pTa, pT1,CIS) and which are also high grade/aggressive tumors. Low grade tumors are not aggressively treated as high grade.
    BCG is an old treatment which is given to patients which has bladder Ca’s mentioned above.  This is 40 year old treatment which is enhancing body’s own immune system and kills the tumor cells. The exact mechanism of how it works is not known till now.

    BCG is the gold standard for initial Bladder tumors and is trusted by all Urologist throughout the Globe. But BCG also has toxicity/side effects which can rage up to 80% of patients.

    Hope this information helps you understand something which you are looking for.

    Thanks

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