CASE REPORT article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
This article is part of the Research TopicUrothelial Neoplasms: An Integrated Approach to Prevention, Diagnostics, and Personalized TherapyView all 14 articles
Durable Complete Response to PD-1 Inhibitor in Vesical Calculus-Associated Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report
Provisionally accepted
- 1Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture People's Hospital, Hezuo, China
- 2Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, China
- 3Lanzhou University Cuiying Honors College, Lanzhou, China
- 4West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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Background: Bladder squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a rare histological subtype of bladder cancer (1%–5% of cases), with radical cystectomy as the primary recommended treatment. However, evidence for neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemotherapy or immunotherapy remains limited, especially for calculus-associated SCC. Case Presentation: A 45-year-old male with vesical calculus-associated bladder SCC refused surgery and radiotherapy, and discontinued gemcitabine-cisplatin chemotherapy due to severe toxicity. He received tislelizumab (programmed death-1/PD-1 inhibitor, 200 mg q3w) and achieved a complete response (CR) after 8 cycles. Suprapubic cystolithotomy was safely performed during immunotherapy, and no tumor recurrence was observed for >24 months. Throughout the entire immunotherapy course, no severe immune-related adverse events occurred. Conclusion: Tislelizumab monotherapy may be a viable option for surgery-ineligible or chemotherapy-intolerant calculus-associated bladder SCC. Definitive stone removal under immunological tumor control is feasible, supporting further exploration of PD-1 inhibitors in this rare subtype.
Keywords: Bladder, Squamous cell carcinoma, Vesical calculus, PD-1 inhibitor, Immunotherapy
Received: 19 Aug 2025; Accepted: 11 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dong, Fu, Zhang, Ma, Wang, Li and Zhang. 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: Su Zhang, zhangsu1215@163.com
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