Positive Experience With TAR-200 for Recurrent Bladder Cancer

Frank Garred, a 77-year-old retiree from Denver, Colorado, was diagnosed with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer in 2017.

After initial treatment with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin(BCG), his cancer recurred in 2020, and he joined the SunRISe-1 clinical trial testing intravesical Inlexzo (formerly known as TAR-200). He has now completed treatment and has no evidence of disease.

Frank sat down for an interview with CURE to discuss his treatment process and recovery.

Transcript

Can you describe what the treatment process was like for you with Inlexzo, both in terms of the procedure itself and your recovery?

Well, the procedure and the schedule for the treatments very much mirrored the BCG protocol. During the first six months, I had Inlexzo inserted, and three weeks later, it was removed and another one inserted. That went on for the first six months.

The effect of the insertion and having it between treatments, compared to BCG, is night and day. BCG is very intense. You have the chemical infused into your bladder, and you have to retain it for up to an hour. The aftereffects are very intense for the first week or more—sometimes a week to ten days. With Inlexzo, there was discomfort, mostly due to the act of inserting it into the bladder and doing the scopes, but there was some adjustment in terms of recovery. That was managed with medications to help with pain and urgency. Overall, it was very manageable, and while I can’t say I got completely used to it, I did adapt.

We (the doctor, the clinical staff, and I) also learned a lot about inserting the Inlexzo. About halfway through the first six months, the doctor said he was really starting to get the hang of it, which I thought was kind of humorous at the time. We tried to keep it light, because it was a kind of comic relief to take my mind off what was going on. So anyway, it was good, very manageable, and overall, a positive experience.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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