Montreal study finds innovative way to update bladder cancer treatment
Posted June 26, 2025 12:08 pm.
A new study has found a way to boost the effectiveness of a long-time treatment of a dominant form of bladder cancer.
A team of scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in Montreal demonstrated that Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) treatment, which uses a weakened strain of the tuberculosis bacteria to train immune cells to recognize and attack cancer cells, can be made more effective by combining with a molecule derived from fungi.
BCG therapy was first developed 50 years ago, and became the “gold standard” for treating non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), where cancer has not penetrated the muscle layer. However over half of patients treated have their cancer return, and face side effects including flu-like symptoms.
Dr. Leonardo Jurado, the first author of the study, has discovered that by combining a fungal-derived molecule called β-glucan with BCG treatment, stem cells can be trained to fight tumours.
“Bladder cancer affects nearly 600,000 people worldwide each year and has the highest recurrence rate of any cancer, which means that many patients continue to experience relapse despite treatment,” said Dr. Jurado. “It’s incredibly exciting that here in Canada — where BCG immunotherapy was first pioneered — we’re now finding ways to make it even more effective.”
The findings suggest this combined treatment can lead to more effective and longer-lasting treatments for bladder cancer and possibly other solid tumours such as melanoma.
Researchers are now planning a clinical trial to test the efficacy of this dual therapy in patient with bladder cancer.
The research was co-authored by Dr. Jurado and Maziar Divangahi, senior scientist at the MUHC’s Research Institute and a professor in McGill’s faculty of medicine and health sciences.
