How is biological therapy used to cure bladder cancer?

How is biological therapy used to cure bladder cancer?

Biologic therapy is used to treat bladder cancer and hopefully to cure it, and it works very well. The biologic therapy for bladder cancer is the installation into the bladder of an organism that is referred to as BCG. It's actually the germ or the organism that causes active tuberculosis. The active tuberculose organism is attenuated - it is weakened by a heat type treatment to the point where the organism, although it is live, will not cause an infection within the host (within the patient) where it is administered. What it is able to do, is to stimulate the immune system of the host or the patient two ways. One is to cause an intense inflammatory response within the bladder where it's administered, especially within the tumor. Also, it stimulates, essentially turns on, the immune system of the host . The host recognizes that this is a foreign substance, it's a tuberculose organism, and wants to fight it off by generating lymphocytes and other antibodies to fight. BCG works very well - it's relatively easy to administer, it's relatively inexpensive, and it's the mainstay in addition to surgery for patients with intermediate and high-risk bladder cancer today.