What the trial was testing
The trial enrolled 37 patients with bladder cancer. The study was sponsored by Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and tracked outcomes across the full group of patients who matched the trial's eligibility profile.
It was initial testing (phase 2). Trials at this stage are designed to produce evidence regulators and physicians can act on — not just observations to follow up later.
What the results showed
88% kept their bladders at 3 years on combined radiation-chemotherapy.
Journal of Clinical Oncology · 2024 · NCT00981656
These findings — that kept their bladders at 3 years with trimodality therapy for BCG-failed T1 bladder cancer — were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and represent the headline result of the study.
Researchers tracked outcomes across 37 patients enrolled in the trial. The result was consistent enough across the group that the team felt confident reporting it.
What this means for patients
For patients with bladder cancer, this result changes the calculus on what to ask their care team about. Whether it changes day-to-day care depends on factors like disease subtype, prior treatments, and where the patient is in their care journey.
What you can do now
Bladder-preserving trimodality therapy (transurethral resection plus radiation plus chemotherapy) is offered at major cancer centers as an alternative to radical cystectomy. Both approaches are reasonable for selected patients. Ask a urologic oncologist and radiation oncologist about which fits your case.
Eligibility for the treatments mentioned above depends on specific test results and clinical history. Bring this summary, the trial name, and your most recent labs or pathology report to your next visit.
Open bladder cancer trials
Evaluating Safety and Efficacy of Verity-BCG in BCG-naïve Patients With Intermediate and High-risk Non-muscle Invasive Bladder (NMIBC)
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Verity-BCG in patients with intermediate and high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and to compare our findings to the standard of care BCG formulation, OncoTICE (BCG) in order to examine our hypothesis that Verity-BCG is at least non-inferior to OncoTICE in achieving 24-month Recurrence Free Survival in NMIBC patients who are at high risk of recurrence and have never been treated with intradermal or intravesical BCG before, with the exception of tuberculosis vaccination in childhood.
Validity of Parametric MRI Using VIRADS
Our aim in this prospective study is to evaluate the validity of the non-contrast biparametric MRI (bp-MRI), including T2-WI and DWI sequences, and the availability of an alternative to the mp-MRI, for the muscle invasiveness assessment of bladder cancer using VIRAD scoring in both techniques.