[Intravesical chemotherapy for superficial bladder tumors]

Intravesical chemotherapy is one of the most effective treatments for superficial bladder tumors. Recent progress in the development of chemotherapeutic agents has provided a variety of compounds of potential benefit for intravesical administration in cases of superficial bladder tumors, including thio-TEPA, MMC, carboquone, adriamycin, FT-207, cytosine arabinoside and bleomycin, and the in therapeutic effectiveness has been reported. We selected adriamycin, because it is considered suitable for intravesical instillation. A 68% effectiveness has been experienced for instillation repeated six to nine times (adriamycin 50 mg/normal saline 30 ml) and side effects occurred in 23% of patients. Intravesical chemotherapy has also been attempted to prevent recurrence after conservative therapy but these modalities still seem to need further study.