Intravesical Instillation of Beta‐Interferon in the Treatment of Bladder Cancer

Abstract

A total of 36 patients with single superficial bladder cancer TNM stage Ta-T1/G2 was studied over a 24-month period before entering the study to evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of high doses of beta-interferon (beta-INF); 24 patients had a primary tumour (group 1) and 12 had had more than 3 recurrences (group 2). They received 8 intravesical doses of beta-INF, 50,000,000 IU in 50 ml sterile water, at weekly intervals, 15 days after transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB). Efficacy was estimated by simple recurrence rate and by the person-years method. The recurrence rate was 25% in group 1 with a mean follow-up of 21.6 months. Comparison with the recurrence rate of a historical control group treated only by TUR showed that there was a slight statistically significant difference. Group 2 had a recurrence rate of 100% in the period before beta-INF (follow-up 24 months) and 91% after INF administration (mean follow-up 20.5 months). Patients were questioned about side effects before and after each treatment; tolerance of the drug was excellent. The results suggest that beta-interferon could be safely used as a prophylactic agent against the recurrence of primary superficial bladder cancer. Its efficacy seems comparable to that obtained with other current chemoprophylactic agents.

Efficacy of escalating doses of intravesical interferon α‐2b in reducing recurrence rate and progression in superficial transitional cell carcinoma

“…Notably in that study, six of nine patients who had failed prior intravesical BCG therapy responded to IFNα‐2b. Migliari et al [ 15] found a 25% simple recurrence rate for a group of patients with primary TCC treated with 50 MU, compared with 38% in a historical control group treated only by TUR. There were no significant differences between the control group and a second group of patients with highly recurrent TCC.…”

Interferon-a2b Reduces Neo-Microvascular Density in the ‘Normal’ Urothelium Adjacent to the Tumor after Transurethral Resection of Superficial Bladder Carcinoma

“…The intravesical administration of chemotherapeutic agents after TUR is a common urological practice in the treatment of superficial TCC of the bladder [31]. Unfortunately, although intravesical chemotherapy decreases tumor recurrence rate in the short-term (1-2 years), long-term results are disappointing, indicating that the proportion of patients having recurrent tumor at ≥5 years is the same or even higher than for those treated by TUR alone [12,13].…”

A controlled study of intravesical epirubicin with or without alpha2b‐interferon as prophylaxis for recurrent superficial transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder

“…A recent report has confirmed that high-dose interferon (100 MU) is an effective and safe treatment for carcinoma in situ [22] and also an appropriate prophylactic agent against the recurrence of primary superficial bladder cancer [23]. Alpha2b-IFN has also been used with success when combined with other chemotherapeutic agents such as epirubicin and mitomycin C. Serretta et aI.. in a preliminary paper, reported that the number of recurrences was reduced by using high-dose epirubicin (50 mg) and 10 MU alpha2b-IFN as intravesical prophylaxis after TUR for superficial bladder tumour [21], and that the efficacy was further increased by the adoption of a longer interval between instillations.…”