Novel intravesical delivery systems for nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer

Nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) represents approximately 75% of bladder cancer cases at diagnosis and poses a significant management challenge due to high recurrence rates and risk for progression. Conventional intravesical therapies face limitations including suboptimal drug delivery, mucosal exposure time and significant adverse events. This review provides a timely assessment of novel intravesical delivery systems developed to overcome these limitations and improve oncological outcomes for patients with NMIBC.

Several innovative delivery systems show promising results. Hyperthermic intravesical chemotherapy (HIVEC) demonstrates its efficacy in selected high-risk NMIBC. Intravesical drug-releasing systems (iDRS) like TAR-200 showed complete response rates up to 84% in BCG-unresponsive disease, while TAR-210 shows promise for FGFR-altered NMIBC. UGN-102, a reverse thermal gel containing mitomycin C, achieves 65-79% complete response rates in low-grade intermediate-risk NMIBC. Oncofid-P-B, combining paclitaxel with hyaluronic acid, demonstrates efficacy in BCG-unresponsive CIS.

Novel intravesical delivery systems show to enhance drug retention, improve tissue penetration, and potentially reduce adverse events. While traditional chemotherapy or BCG remain the gold-standard adjuvant treatments for NMIBC, these novel approaches offer promising alternatives for selected patients pending on ongoing clinical validation.