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

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Abstract
Summary— 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 TU R 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.