Assessment of ex-vivo efficacy (oncogram) of immunotherapeutic and chemotherapeutic agents in bladder cancer: A pilot study of personalized treatment.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To investigate the ex-vivo efficacy of immunotherapeutics and chemotherapeutics in bladder cancer primary cell cultures, to assess the applicability of the method according to the results and to evaluate suitability of the oncogram method for personalized treatment of bladder cancer. METHODS: After receiving ethics committee approval, tumor tissue was obtained from patients with transurethral resection performed due to bladder tumor from 2015 to 2017. Primary culture was produced from the obtained fresh tissue. Each culture was divided into 6 groups. The control group had only medium applied, while the other groups had Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG), Interferon-α (IFN-α), Gemcitabine, BCG+IFN-α and BCG+Gemcitabine, respectively. Viability tests in the 24th hour were performed on each culture. The results of all cases were compared with their own controls. Also, results of each case were compared between the cases with similar pathologic results. RESULTS: The study assessed 24 bladder cancer cases. Mean patient age was 66.2±11.7 years (34-83), with 19 male (79.5%) and 5 female patients (20.5%). When data were compared between the groups, viability percentages were 31.2%, 30.9%, 27.7%, 32.1% and 29.4% in the BCG, IFN-α, Gemcitabine, BCG+IFN-α and BCG+Gemcitabine groups compared with their own controls (73.1%), respectively (p<0.001). In addition, we found that viability results were not similar in all cases. CONCLUSIONS: Cell cultures produced from bladder cancer tissue might help to determine sensitivity to treatment. This ex-vivo method (oncogram) is a simple and applicable method that can be used for personalized treatment before intravesical or systemic therapy.