Bladder cancer (BC) represents a wide spectrum of diseases, ranging from recurrent non-invasive tumors to advanced stages that require intensive treatments. BC accounts for an estimated 500,000 new cases and 200,000 deaths worldwide every year. Understanding the biology of BC has changed how this disease is diagnosed and treated. Bladder cancer is highly immunogenic, involving innate and adaptive components of the immune system. Although little is still known of how immune cells respond to BC, immunotherapy with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) remains the gold standard in high-risk non-muscle invasive BC. For muscle-invasive BC and metastatic stages, immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting CTLA-4, PD-1, and PD-L1 have emerged as potent therapies, enhancing immune surveillance and tumor cell elimination. This review aims to unravel the immune responses involving innate and adaptive immune cells in BC that will contribute to establishing new and promising therapeutic options, while reviewing the immunotherapies currently in use in bladder cancer.
Cells. 2024 Nov 22*** epublish ***
Inmaculada Ruiz-Lorente, Lourdes Gimeno, Alicia López-Abad, Pedro López Cubillana, Tomás Fernández Aparicio, Lucas Jesús Asensio Egea, Juan Moreno Avilés, Gloria Doñate Iñiguez, Pablo Luis Guzmán Martínez-Valls, Gerardo Server, José Félix Escudero-Bregante, Belén Ferri, José Antonio Campillo, Eduardo Pons-Fuster, María Dolores Martínez Hernández, María Victoria Martínez-Sánchez, Diana Ceballos, Alfredo Minguela
Immunology Service, Virgen de la Arrixaca University Clinical Hospital (HCUVA), Biomedical Research Institute of Murcia (IMIB), 30120 Murcia, Spain., Urology Service, Virgen de la Arrixaca University Clinical Hospital (HCUVA), Biomedical Research Institute of Murcia (IMIB), 30120 Murcia, Spain., Urology Service, Morales Meseguer Hospital, 30008 Murcia, Spain., De la Vega Lorenzo Guirao Hospital, 30530 Murcia, Spain., Urology Service, Santa Lucia Hospital, 4067 Murcia, Spain., Urology Service, Los Arcos Hospital, 30739 Murcia, Spain., Urology Service, Reina Sofía Hospital, 14004 Murcia, Spain., Pathology Service, Virgen de la Arrixaca University Clinical Hospital (HCUVA), Biomedical Research Institute of Murcia (IMIB), 30120 Murcia, Spain., Human Anatomy Department, Universidad de Murcia and Campus Mare Nostrum, 30071 Murcia, Spain.