Developing a new strategy to reduce the side effects of bladder cancer treatment

Background

Each year, around 3,100 Australians are diagnosed with bladder cancer, and up to 75% of these cases are non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The usual treatment involves surgery to remove the tumour, followed by a type of immunotherapy called Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), which is administered directly into the bladder to stimulate the immune system and stop the cancer from progressing or coming back. While this treatment works well, it often causes side effects such as bladder pain, urinary urgency and urinary frequency. These symptoms can be so severe that up to 20% of patients stop treatment early. Currently, there is no standard way to manage these side effects, leaving many patients to suffer through treatment. 

About the Project

Dr Grundy and his team are looking for a new way to make BCG treatment more tolerable for patients. The team have already identified that the nerves in the bladder become overly sensitive during BCG therapy, reacting much more strongly to normal bladder activity. This exaggerated response leads to bladder pain and dysfunction.  

In this project, the team will use pain-relief medicines, called analgesics, that are already approved for bladder pain in other conditions. These medicines should calm the overactive bladder nerves and reduce the pain and discomfort caused by the BCG treatment. Importantly, this project will also ensure that the analgesics do not reduce how effective BCG is in bladder cancer treatment.