Bladder cancer is one of the most common urological tumours. In over 75% of cases, it’s diagnosed when the tumour is in its non-muscle invasive form; i.e. it hasn’t reached the muscle layer of the bladder.

The standard treatments consist of administering BCG, a vaccine derived from Mycobacterium tuberculosis that’s introduced directly into the bladder to activate the immune system and slow down the disease.

But there’s a limitation to this approach: it doesn’t always prevent relapses or stop tumour progression.

For this reason, the research team from IrsiCaixa and the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, in collaboration with Archivel Farma, proposed a new approach: What if, before administering treatment, we could train the immune system to make it more effective? Cecilia Cabrera, the study’s principal investigator, answers this question in this latest News from the Lab. 

One way to achieve this could be via RUTI®, a vaccine based on fragments of Mycobacterium tuberculosis designed to act as pre-training.

“RUTI® warms up the immune system”, explains Cecilia. “It activates and prepares our defences so that, when the BCG arrives, the immune system’s response is faster and more powerful”.

To evaluate this strategy, the team carried out a study with 40  patients who were monitored for five years. The results, published in European Urology, were particularly promising: fewer relapses, less progression and higher survival rates in the group receiving RUTI® before the BCG treatment. “In fact, during follow-up no death was recorded among the patients who were given the combination, compared with three in the group treated only with BCG”, notes Cabrera. 

The next step is to confirm these results in larger trials “but the signs are clear”, explains Cecilia: “reinforcing the immune system before treatment could make a significant difference in the outcome for these patients”.