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Tumour immunology

BCG plus β-glucan trains neutrophils to beat bladder cancer

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 25, page 556 (2025)Cite this article

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Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), the long-established vaccine against tuberculosis, is also used as a standard treatment for bladder cancer. However, successful treatment requires several doses and only half of patients show long-lasting benefit. Jurado et al. set out to enhance the antitumoural effects of BCG by combining it with the fungal cell wall component β-glucan.

Using a mouse model of bladder cancer, the authors showed that intravesicle administration (direct to the bladder via a catheter) of BCG or β-glucan alone improved survival of tumour-bearing mice by around 40%, whereas their combination led to 100% survival, without any tumour recurrence. Single nuclear transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses of haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) indicated that the intravesically instilled BCG plus β-glucan therapy reaches the bone marrow, where it promotes enhanced HSPC activity, granulopoiesis and trained immunity.

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  1. Nature Reviews Immunology http://www.nature.com/nri/

    Lucy Bird

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  1. Lucy Bird
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Correspondence to Lucy Bird.

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Bird, L. BCG plus β-glucan trains neutrophils to beat bladder cancer. Nat Rev Immunol 25, 556 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01209-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01209-7

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