Disseminated tuberculosis in a patient with recurrent transitional cell carcinoma of renal pelvis and bladder following intravesical BCG therapy: A report of a rare case.

ABSTRACT

Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) has been used as an intravesical instillation for nonmuscle invasive (superficial) bladder cancer for the last 3 decades. Although intravesical BCG therapy is well-tolerated by most of the patients, adverse reactions have also been reported which are usually local, benign, and self-limited. Systemic complications such as miliary tuberculosis (TB) are very rare with few documented reports in literature. We hereby report a rare case of disseminated TB in bilateral lungs, adrenal, cervical, mediastinal, and para-aortic lymph nodes in a patient with recurrent transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of renal pelvis and urinary bladder. Peculiar feature of this case was the development of TB 2 years following last BCG instillation, which is unlike most of the cases in the literature where TB developed within few weeks of last dose of BCG.