Intraluminal Interleukin 2 and Bacillus Calmette-Guerin for Treatment of Bladder Cancer: A Preliminary Report

The authors treated 13 patients who had undergone resection of transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder with a combination of 3,500 units of interleukin 2 and half the recommended dose of bacillus Calmette-Guerin. Of the patients 11 (85 per cent) remained free of tumor for a mean of 13 months (range 6 to 24 months). These results are comparable to those with bacillus Calmette-Guerin therapy alone. However, a longer followup with a large number of patients is needed to assess the efficacy of this modality compared to conventional bacillus Calmette-Guerin therapy. Side effects after treatment were minor, self limiting (fever, hematuria and bladder irritability) and lasted for 24 hours.