Clinical application of drug sensitive gene detection in postoperative instillation for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer is the most common malignant tumor of the urinary system. One of the biological characteristics of NMIBC is the high recurrence rate after surgery. The implementation of this project aimed to investigate the role of pharmacogenomic testing-guided intravesical perfusion of chemotherapeutic agents in the postoperative perfusion therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. METHOD: From January 2015 to December 2016, 298 patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer were enrolled in this prospective study. These patients received chemotherapy drugs after electrotherapy. According to the presence or absence of tumor susceptibility gene detection after surgery, they were divided into two groups, including the drug sensitive group(N = 44) and the control group(N = 254). The drug sensitive group received bladder infusion therapy with sensitive chemotherapy drugs based on drug sensitivity gene detection results. The control group received intravesical instillation of pirarubicin. The preoperative general data and tumor grade of patients were recorded. Cystoscopy was performed before and every 3 months after surgery. The chest CT, upper abdomen CT, renal function, and urinary routine tests were performed. Tumor recurrence, metastasis and tumor-related death were recorded and evaluated during follow-up. RESULTS: The drug sensitive group, which selected high-sensitivity drugs for intravesical instillation therapy based on gene expression, has a significantly lower relapse rate (11.36% vs 37.40%, P < 0.05) and a significantly longer time to relapse (17.80 ± 7.20 month vs11.20 ± 6.10 month, P < 0.05) compared with the control group. There were no significant differences in the time of mortality and death time between two groups. CONCLUSION: The pharmacogenomic testing-directed bladder instillation of chemotherapeutic drugs may be more effective than empiric drug administration in reducing the recurrence rate of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.