Bladder cancer project grant success

The Urological Oncology group have recently been awarded a small grant from Action Bladder Cancer UK for £9,311.00 to help fund our project: Urinary microbiome as a predictor of response to Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) immunotherapy in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. This project will be carried out by Dr Nicola Annel’s PhD student, Tyler Wooldridge, in collaboration with Matt Perry and Hugh Mostafid, Urology Consultants at the Royal Surrey County Hospital .

Picture caption: The team: Back row left to right: Mr Matthew Perry – Consultant Urological Surgeon,
Gregory Nason – Senior Clinical Fellow, and Mr Hugh Mostafid – Consultant Urological Surgeon. Front row left to right: Tyler Wooldridge – PhD student, and Dr Nicola Annels – Senior Research Fellow.

– PROJECT SUMMARY –

The patient’s bladder microbiome (bacteria in bladder lining) may have a role in development of bladder cancer and its response to immunotherapies.

The project team will investigate differences in microbial composition of bladder tumour tissue and urine between patients with recurrence (BCG-failure), and without recurrence potentially providing a predictive marker for response to BCG therapy. Analysis of the patient’s tumour immune-microenvironment will reveal the role the microbiome plays in shaping the bladder immune response. Understanding the alteration of bacterial composition in bladder cancer could lead to the bladder microbiome of patients being used as a modifiable way to optimise response to immunotherapy.