Bladder cancer affects about 80,000 Americans each year, with most cases caught early when the tumor sits on the bladder's inner lining. Standard treatment often involves surgery to remove the tumor, followed by BCG immunotherapy instilled directly into the bladder. Advanced bladder cancer that has invaded muscle or spread beyond the bladder now has new immunotherapy and antibody-drug conjugate options that extend survival.
What's actually going on in research
Trials are testing checkpoint inhibitors earlier in treatment, antibody-drug conjugates that deliver chemotherapy directly to cancer cells, new combinations for BCG-unresponsive disease, and bladder-preserving approaches that avoid surgical removal. Researchers are also studying whether genetic changes in the tumor can guide treatment choices and identify people who will benefit most from immunotherapy.
Antibody-drug conjugates
Enfortumab vedotin and sacituzumab govitecan link antibodies to chemotherapy, delivering treatment directly to cancer cells. Studies are testing whether using them earlier improves outcomes compared to standard chemotherapy.
Bladder preservation
Trials are testing whether combining chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy can control muscle-invasive bladder cancer without removing the bladder. Early results suggest this may work for selected patients.
Biomarker-guided treatment
Studies are examining whether tumor mutations, immune cell patterns, or gene expression signatures predict response to immunotherapy. This could help identify who benefits from checkpoint inhibitors versus chemotherapy.
What to know before you search
Eligibility typically depends on cancer stage, whether it has invaded muscle, prior treatments including BCG, and kidney function.
What types of trials are currently open
- Treatment trials — Testing new drugs or combinations, often checkpoint inhibitors or antibody-drug conjugates, to see if they work better than current chemotherapy for advanced disease.
- Bladder-sparing trials — Testing whether chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy together can control muscle-invasive cancer without surgical removal of the bladder.
- BCG trials — Testing new treatments for people whose bladder cancer returns after BCG immunotherapy, including gene therapies and checkpoint inhibitors.
- Surgery trials — Comparing surgical techniques or testing whether adding new drugs before or after surgery improves outcomes.
- Prevention trials — Testing whether drugs or supplements can prevent bladder cancer recurrence in people who have had early-stage tumors removed.
Recently added Bladder Cancer trials
Share cancer case data to help evaluate AI treatment recommendations
BEACON (Benchmarking AI for Clinical Oncology decisioNmaking) is a prospective, multicentre, comparative, blinded, non-interventional benchmark evaluating the treatment recommendations of five frontier large language models (LLMs) against the recommendations of multidisciplinary tumour boards (RCP) in oncology treatment planning. One hundred standardised synthetic cases (20 per localisation, across breast, lung, urological, digestive and gynaecological cancers) are submitted as identical structured input to two independent tumour boards per localisation and to five frontier LLMs. Each recommendation - human or model - is decomposed into five predefined decision domains (intent, surgery, radiotherapy, systemic therapy, work-up and biomarkers) and scored 0/1/2 for concordance against a two-tier reference: the consensus of the two tumour boards, complemented by an a priori locked guideline matrix (ESMO, NCCN). The primary endpoint is domain-level concordance between LLM and RCP consensus, expressed as a linearly weighted Cohen's kappa. A co-primary safety endpoint captures the proportion of recommendations carrying serious harm potential, because concordance alone can conceal dangerous errors. Because expert boards may disagree with one another on identical cases, model performance is always interpreted against the human consensus. BEACON is designed as reusable, openly licensed, pre-registered infrastructure: all synthetic cases, evaluation rubrics, the locked guideline matrix, scoring algorithms and verbatim prompts are released for full reproducibility.
LCS103 Herbal Formula for Secondary Prevention of Non-Muscle Invasive Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder
This study is a phase IIA, single-site, randomized, controlled, open-label clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of the LCS103 oral herbal formula for the secondary prevention of NMIBC. The study will include 60 participants randomized 1:1 to either the investigational or control arm. Patients in the investigational arm will receive three oral tablets of LCS103 herbal formula twice daily for 1 year, in addition to the SOC recommended per risk group: * Low Risk: Cystoscopic follow-up at 3 \& 9 months and yearly thereafter. * Intermediate Risk: 1-year intravesical instillations of BCG. Cystoscopic follow-up at 3 \& 9 months, then biannually for 2 years and yearly thereafter. * High Risk: 3-year intravesical instillations of BCG. Cystoscopy and urine cytology every 3 months for 2 years, then biannually thereafter. Participants in the control arm will receive SOC treatment as mentioned above. After 1 year, the investigational treatment will be stopped, and all participants will continue SOC treatment and surveillance. The enrollment period is expected to be 1 year. The study will be terminated after the final visit of the last patient. The total study duration is expected to be 2 years.
Find Bladder Cancer trials matched specifically to you
Answer 3 quick questions and we'll show you trials that fit your situation.