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Bladder cancer

Does immune cell exhaustion lie at the heart of BCG-unresponsive disease?

Immune system activation is necessary for BCG-mediated tumour immunity in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. However, mounting evidence supports the notion that dysfunctional activation, in the form of immune exhaustion, might contribute to BCG failure. Thus, an exhaustion signature, arising in treated tumours, could act as a predictive marker for BCG therapy.

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Fig. 1: Variables present before BCG treatment that have been identified as predictive of T cell exhaustion and BCG high-grade recurrence of bladder cancer.

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Correspondence to Molly A. Ingersoll.

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Ingersoll, M.A. Does immune cell exhaustion lie at the heart of BCG-unresponsive disease?. Nat Rev Urol 20, 201–202 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-022-00687-x

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