Long-Term Followup of Patients Treated With 1 or 2, 6-Week Courses of Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin: Analysis of Possible Predictors of Response Free of Tumor

AbstractWe report our long-term experience with 104 patients treated for recurrent superficial bladder tumors followed for a mean of 48 ± 2 months (range 6 to 83 months). Patients received 6 weekly intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin instillations, and were followed for response with urinary cytology, cystoscopy and bladder biopsy. Patients were considered treatment failures if either urinary cytology or biopsy results were positive for tumor. Of 69 patients who failed the initial treatment course 60 were given an additional 6-week course of therapy. A 6-week course of bacillus Calmette-Guerin was successful in 19 of 55 patients (35%) treated for prophylaxis, 10 of 32 (31%) treated for carcinoma in situ and 6 of 17 (35%) treated for residual tumor. The response rate for the total patient population treated with 1, 6-week course was 34% (35 of 104). Another 6-week course was successful in 32 of 60 patients (53%). The over-all response rate free of tumor for patients treated with either 6 or 12 weeks of t...