Immunotherapy has been applied topically, intralesionally and systemically in the treatment of local, regional, and metastatic bladder cancer. Results from multiple clinical trials conducted in the past 10 years have been disappointing in patients with locally advanced or disseminated disease, but immunotherapy has contributed significantly to the successful treatment of superficial bladder tumors. Immunotherapy offers improved means of eradicating existing tumors and, more important, preventing potentially life-threatening new tumor occurrences by favorably altering preneoplastic lesions (chemoprevention).
