Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) has been the standard of care for the treatment of high-risk, non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) for decades, but 49.6% of high-risk and very-high-risk patients will experience progression to muscle-invasive disease in five years. Furthermore, cytology and cystoscopy entail a high burden for both patients and health care systems due to the need for very long periods of follow-up. Subsequent adjuvant treatment using intravesical immunotherapy with BCG has been shown to be effective in reducing tumor recurrence and progression, but it is not free of severe adverse effects that ultimately diminish patients’ quality of life. Because not all patients benefit from BCG treatment, it is of paramount importance to be able to identify responders and non-responders to BCG as soon as possible in order to offer the best available treatment and prevent unnecessary adverse events. The tumor microenvironment (TME), local immune response, and systemic immune response (both adaptive and innate) seem to play an important role in defining responders, although the way they interact remains unclear. A shift towards a proinflammatory immune response in TME is thought to be related to BCG effectiveness. The aim of this review is to collect the most relevant data available regarding BCG’s mechanism of action, its role in modulating innate and adaptive immune responses and the secretion of certain cytokines, and their potential use as immunological markers of response; the aim is also to identify promising lines of investigation.

Objective: To assess the survival outcomes of patients diagnosed with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) who are not candidates for curative treatment and to identify the factors influencing these outcomes. Methods: We conducted an analysis of patients diagnosed with MIBC who were either unable or unwilling to undergo curative therapy. We evaluated overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) and examined their associations with various clinical variables. Additionally, we assessed emergency department visits and palliative procedures. Results: The study included 142 patients with a median age of 79.4 years and a Charlson Comorbidity Index of 9.8. At diagnosis, 59.2% of the patients had localized disease, 23.2% had metastatic disease, and 49.3% presented with hydronephrosis. Curative treatment was excluded due to comorbidities in 40.1% of cases and advanced disease stage in 36.6%. The 1-year and 2-year OS rates were 42.8% and 23.6%, respectively, with a median survival of 10.6 months. The 1-year and 2-year CSS rates were 49.6% and 30.2%, respectively, with a median survival of 11.9 months. Worse survival outcomes were associated with advanced disease stage and the presence of hydronephrosis. Patients excluded from curative treatment solely due to age had a relatively better prognosis. On average, patients visited the emergency department three times: 19% underwent palliative transurethral resection of the bladder tumor, 14.8% received radiotherapy to control hematuria, and nephrostomy tubes were placed in 26.1% of cases. Conclusions: Patients with MIBC who are unable or unwilling to undergo curative treatment have a median overall survival of less than one year, with worse outcomes observed in those with advanced disease stage and hydronephrosis.

Purpose. Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) affecting the graft after renal transplantation is a very infrequent way of presentation of this tumor. Our aim is to present our single institution experience with 2 cases, as well as to perform a review of the literature about this tumor after the transplant.Materials and Methods. TCC of the graft developed in 2 of 1365 patients from 1977 to 2010, both cases in women. Data were analyzed for incidence, clinical presentation, treatment, and outcomes.Results. Both cases occurred in 2 mid-age women and resulted to be high grade and locally advanced TCCs, representing an incidence of 0,14% (2/1365). Clinical presentation was urinary obstruction for the first case and incidental ultrasound finding for the second. Preoperative staging was made with CT, cytology, pyelography, ureterorenoscopy, and biopsy. Treatment performed was nephroureterectomy of the graft with bladder cuff and regional lymphadenectomy. Pathological examination showed in both cases a locally advanced and high grade urothelial carcinoma of the pelvis allograft. After 24 and 14 months of followup, both patients are disease free.Conclusions. TCC of the kidney graft is an infrequent tumor that has only been reported in a few cases in the literature. It usually appears at a lower age, more often locally advanced, and with poor differentiation. A multidisciplinary approach to treatment should be required in these cases.