Safety
BCG is used globally as a safe vaccine for tuberculosis and BCG is routinely used as immunotherapy in the treatment of bladder cancer. Future bacterial immunotherapies for other cancer types are expected to have a similar safety profile.
BCG specific side effects in the treatment of bladder cancer are common. These side effects usually settle within a 48 hour period and require little more than paracetamol as treatment. Patients receiving BCG treatment can develop fevers and can, albeit rarely, suffer from more severe symptoms resulting from the microbial infection. These symptoms can, in the vast majority of cases, be treated effectively.
Similarly, OK-432 has also been found to be safe and result in relatively minor side effects.
Bacterial immunotherapy is not expected to have a long term negative impact on quality of life.
- Medical News Today: Bladder cancer: What to know about BCG treatment
- Meyer JP, Persad R, Gillatt DA. Use of bacille Calmette-Guérin in superficial bladder cancer. Postgrad Med J. 2002 Aug;78(922):449-54.
- Cancer Council: Side effects of BCG
- Cleveland clinic: Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) treatment
- Medscape: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Immunotherapy for Bladder Cancer Overview of BCG Immunotherapy
- Fasching G. Treatment of lymphangiomas by means of sclerotherapy with OK-432 (Picibanil®) is safe and effective - A retrospective case series. Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2022 Sep 2;81:104531. doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2022.104531. PMID: 36147081; PMCID: PMC9486752.
- Mimura H. Japanese clinical practice guidelines for vascular anomalies 2017. Pediatr Int. 2020 Mar;62(3):257-304. doi: 10.1111/ped.14077. Epub 2020 Mar 22. PMID: 32202048; PMCID: PMC7232443.