Inhibition of bacillus Calmette-Guérin-induced nitric oxide in bladder tumor cells may improve BCG treatment.

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is considered to be one of the most effective treatments for superficial and in situ bladder cancer. However, either failure to respond initially or relapse within the first 5 years of treatment has been observed in some patients. As nitric oxide (NO) has been detected in the bladder of BCG-treated patients, we analyzed the role of endogenous NO generated after BCG treatments on human (T24) and murine (MB49 and MBT2) bladder tumor cells in the viability of tumor and immune cells, both in vitro and in vivo.