Efficacy

Efficacy

Bacterial immunotherapy is routinely used in the treatment of bladder cancer and lymphangioma and has previously been successfully used for other cancer types. 

Bladder cancer
The bacterial immunotherapeutic BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin), is standard of care in the treatment of high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

BCG treatment is based on the intravesical injection of attenuated bacteria in order to activate the innate and adaptive immune systems and trigger an immune response against both these bacteria as well as cancer cells. 

Bladder cancer is the 7^th most prevalent cancer type and NMIBC constitutes 75%-80% of all newly presented bladder cancer cases. NMIBC can be diagnosed in different stages and treatments and cure-rates will vary depending on when therapy is initiated. BCG is the treatment of choice for high risk NMIBC patients.

In retrospective evaluations cited by the European Association of Urology a complete response rate of 72−93% was achieved. BCG maintenance treatment is reported to reduce the risk of progression by 27%.

OK-432
OK-432 is a Japanese bacterial immunotherapy product that is approved for the treatment of (paediatric) lymphangiomas (benign malformations of the lymphatic system). In a recent European study over 85% of patients were found to have a good or excellent response. In multiple other cancer types OK-432 has also been shown to result in a meaningful survival benefit. 

Other cancer types
Bacterial immunotherapy has been used successfully as early as the 1890’s (see history).

More recently, promising results have been generated in multiple cancer types. These include:

• Melanoma
• Gastric cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Colon cancer
• Lymphoma

Previous studies have been based on a variety of microbial strains and a variety of ways of administering them. Both are probably important success factors. One of the key objectives of BACTherapy is to, based on current scientific understanding, define the optimal use of bacterial immunotherapy.