[Comparative study on prophylactic intravesical instillation of bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) and adriamycin for superficial bladder cancers]

In this study we evaluated 77 patients with superficial bladder cancer who were treated with either intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) (44 patients) or doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin, ADR) (33 patients) for prophylaxis of tumor recurrence after transurethral resection. The estimated actuarial probability of non-recurrence rate at three years for the BCG group was 73.0%, and the actuarial non-recurrence rate for the ADR group was 27.3%; a statistically significant difference (p = 0.0013). A comparison between the two groups was also made according to the patient's background, including whether the tumor was initial or recurrent, solitary or multiple, and the tumor grade. In all areas of the study, except for grade-1 tumors, the BCG group was significantly superior to the ADR group. The efficacy of BCG therapy as a result of different BCG treatment protocol was evaluated for six weekly instillations 1) without further maintenance instillation, 2) followed by 12 months of maintenance, and 3) followed by more than 18 months of maintenance. Long-term maintenance BCG instillation group (more than 18 months) showed the most favorable results, however, the differences were not statistically significant. These results indicate that intravesical BCG instillation was significantly superior to ADR in the prevention of bladder cancer recurrence and that six weekly intravesical BCG instillations may provide adequate prophylactic effects against recurrence of superficial bladder cancers.