Impact of intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin and chemotherapy on the bladder microbiome in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Abstract

IVT for NMIBC appears to change the urinary microbiome by decreasing richness while not altering evenness or overall diversity. The presence of <i>Aerococcus</i> species may be predictive of a poor cancer response to IVT, while the presence of <i>Ureaplasma</i> and <i>Escherichia/Shigella</i> may predict a favorable response to IVT. Further studies are warranted to elucidate and confirm the significance of changes in the bladder microbiome.