MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1609871
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Disease Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and NursingView all 9 articles
Advances in the Immunological Microenvironment and Immunotherapy of Bladder Cancer
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
- 2Department of Urology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, HeiLongJiang Harbin 150000, China, Harbin, Jilin Province, China
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Bladder cancer remains a significant global health challenge, particularly affecting male populations. While radical cystectomy and chemotherapy have been mainstays of treatment, their substantial morbidity and impact on quality of life have driven the development of bladder-preserving immunotherapeutic strategies. Clinical trial data support the use of ICIs as first-line therapy for cisplatin-ineligible patients, second-line treatment for platinum-refractory disease, and maintenance therapy. This review comprehensively summarizes the advances in bladder cancer immunotherapy, focusing on the tumor immune microenvironment and emerging treatment modalities, as well as the roles of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4 pathways, which have demonstrated remarkable efficacy in both muscle-invasive (MIBC) and non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). This review also provides novel approaches including combination immunotherapies, tumor vaccines, adoptive cellular therapies, and oncolytic viruses. Overall, these immunotherapeutic advances are transforming bladder cancer management, offering improved outcomes while reducing treatment morbidity.
Keywords: Bladder cancer, Immunotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, Tumor Microenvironment, PD-1/PD-L1, CAR-T cells
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 01 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Meng, Zhu, Ji, Wang, Zhang, Zhang, Xue and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chunyang Wang, Department of Urology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, HeiLongJiang Harbin 150000, China, Harbin, Jilin Province, China
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