IBCN 2018: Bladder Cancer and Therapy from an Immunologist's Perspective

Rotterdam, The Netherlands (UroToday.com) The bladder contains many immune populations which contribute to benign and malignant bladder conditions. Immunologists use models to understand the immune system and bladder cancer. An example is the use of a BBN mouse model to give heterogeneous tumors. Bladder diseases exhibit sex disparities. Most mouse models are in fact female, however, there are male models. BCG therapy induces T cell infiltration. There are biases in models which may have different results. Model 1: Preexisting BCG immunity increases macrophage accumulation in the bladder upon BCG therapy. Model 2: Pre-existing BCG immunity does not impact macrophage accumulation. Interestingly, myeloid cells are not different. Another bias introduced is that male mice have more antigen-specific CD8 T cells than female mice. The same is seen with PD1 expression and T reg according to male sex in these models.

In summary, the tumor environment has unique differences according to sex. These have important implications in study design and targeted therapies. Moreover, we need to see immunology in all stages of bladder cancer which have different immune response and microenvironments.

Presented by: Molly Ingersoll, Ph.D., Department of Immunology, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Written by: Stephen B. Williams, M.D., Associate Professor, Division of Urology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX. and Ashish M. Kamat, M.D. Professor, Department of Urology, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX at the 16th Annual Meeting of the International Bladder Cancer Network (IBCN) October 11-13, 2018 - the Inntel Hotels Rotterdam Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

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