New discovery remarkably improves immunotherapy in bladder cancer and beyond
Combining the fungal-derived β‑glucan with Bacillus Calmette‑Guérin (BCG) markedly enhances BCG therapy, leading to complete tumor eradication and 100 % survival in a preclinical murine bladder cancer model, and shows promise for other solid tumors such as melanoma.
A preclinical study reported that adding β‑glucan to BCG immunotherapy trains innate immune cells, specifically neutrophils, via reprogramming of bone‑marrow stem cells. The resulting dual therapy completely eradicated tumors and achieved 100 % survival in a mouse bladder cancer model, and also showed activity against melanoma and other solid tumors. The authors propose a clinical trial to evaluate this strategy in patients.
Bladder cancer has the highest recurrence rate among cancers and current BCG therapy is limited by partial efficacy and side effects. Enhancing BCG with β‑glucan could improve cure rates, reduce recurrence, and extend durable immunity to other solid tumors, opening a new avenue for next‑generation immunotherapies.
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