TB Vax for Bladder Cancer

How the bacteria found in a tuberculosis vaccine can improve the outcome of bladder cancer treatment

Written byRuth Williams

| 3 min read

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WIKIMEDIA COMMONS,

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a puny cousin of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, and as such serves as an excellent vaccine against the disease. But BCG is also used to treat bladder cancer. Research published today (June 5) in Science Translational Medicine reveals how BCG achieves its cancer-fighting performance, and suggests the bug has a better chance of winning if the patient has a prior BCG vaccination.

Since the 1970s, BCG has been used to help prevent bladder cancer from returning after surgical removal. Doctors have simply pumped the bladder full of the bacteria to induce a localized immune response that helps kill cancer cells.

“BCG has always fascinated everybody because here we have what seems like a barbaric approach to treating cancer,” said Michael ...

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Meet the Author

Ruth Williams
Ruth is a freelance journalist. Before freelancing, Ruth was a news editor for the Journal of Cell Biology in New York and an assistant editor for Nature Reviews Neuroscience in London. Prior to that, she was a bona fide pipette-wielding, test tube–shaking, lab coat–shirking research scientist. She has a PhD in genetics from King’s College London, and was a postdoc in stem cell biology at Imperial College London. Today she lives and writes in Connecticut.
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