Bladder Cancer Treatment: Intravesical Therapy - Urology Care Foundation

If you are a patient with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, it is important to know your choices for treatment. Based on your diagnosis, your urologist may suggest intravesical therapy.

What is Intravesical Therapy?
Intravesical therapy is a treatment where a liquid drug is administered into the bladder to help treat any leftover bladder cancer after a TURBT procedure. It also helps cut the risk of recurrence.

The most common intravesical therapy is known as BCG. This therapy is one of the earliest forms of “immunotherapy,” as it uses your immune system to help get rid of any leftover bladder cancer cells.

Intravesical Therapy Procedure

The treatment does not start until you are fully healed from TURBT surgery, most often 2 to 4 weeks after surgery and it is done in the doctor's office. During the procedure, the drug is put into the bladder through a catheter. A catheter is a small tube that goes into your bladder through your urethra You hold the drug in your bladder for 1 or 2 hours, and then pass it out. You often can go home that same day. You can expect to receive six treatments during the first treatment phase – about once a week for six weeks.

Intravesical Therapy Recovery & Side Effects:
You may have side effects such as an increase in the need to urinate, and the urge to urinate more often, pain, blood in the urine, tiredness, and muscle aches. These side effects mostly stop a few days after treatment. Sometimes, intravesical immunotherapy may cause flu-like symptoms such as fatigue and a low-grade fever.

Intravesical Therapy Risks:
Very few people have severe symptoms from intravesical therapy. If you do have severe symptoms, you may require a dose reduction or a “break” from therapy. A rare complication is an infection, which could require IV antibiotics and hospital admission.

If BCG is not available, or if your urologist feels you may not benefit from this therapy, you may be offered intravesical chemotherapy. Some of the drugs that are used include gemcitabine, docetaxel, and mitomycin and or a combination of these drugs.

Once you complete intravesical therapy, your urologist will schedule you for a “re-staging cystoscopy” and possible bladder biopsy to see if the treatment was effective.

If your bladder remains free of cancer, your doctor may suggest more treatment (called maintenance therapy) to keep the tumor from coming back. This means you may from time to time get treatments in your bladder.

It is important you talk to your urologist about any questions or concerns you have about this treatment.

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