BCG Side Effects: my toughest side effect is lower back pain

@jcold5619 welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. So sorry to hear about your back pain. What is BCG treatment? (I don’t do well with acronyms.) Could you elaborate?

I'm sorry you are having such pain. Have you discussed this with your doctor or their team? Pain at that level should be something they are aware of.
Have you tried a phone call or email ?

This has been throughly discussed with the doctor. Unfortunately I’m told that this is one of the many possible side effects. Not much can be done other than trying to manage the pain.

BCG treatment is a form of immunotherapy to treat bladder cancer.

While some side effects should be expected when you have your 6 week BCG induction, unusual or / and disturbing ones should be reported to your medical team. When I had my initial induction ( 6 full dose treatments over seven weeks, last Autumn I had a few but manageable one's such as fatigue and muscular aches. Next week I shall start my first maintenance BCG treatment. Three treatments at 1/3 dosage for three weeks. While some side effects are to be expected, I do not expect anything severe. Since you are having severe one's again, this should be reported to your medical team. Maybe just a matter of increasing Tylenol.

BCG stands for "Bacillus Calmette-Guerin" . It is an immunotherapy that has been the mainstay for treating Stage One bladder cancers AFTER all evidence of a cancer tumor has been removed.

My issue with this Blog is that Mayo Connect has placed Kidney and Bladder Cancer in the same group. This is so inappropriate since the two have distinct profiles and distinct treatments. For example, while BCG has been the mainstay for treating early stage bladder cancers (after the tumor has been removed) since the 1970's this is not a treatment for kidney cancer ! Why was this decision made in the first place to group the two ?

Thank you for your input. Just returning from my 5th treatment. One more to go on my 6 week induction period.

Is it common to drop down to 1/3 dosage after my time off? I had not heard that they will be doing any reduction in my dosage…..

Thanks again and good luck to you.

@vickyhay you pose a very good question. I had a similar question myself related to another body system and the occurrence of cancer. There are SO many groups and discussions on Mayo Clinic Connect. They are largely categorized by body systems. Unfortunately concerns about cancer pertains to nearly all of them. In addition to that there are other groups and discussions devoted to other aspects of achieving good health and well being such as mental health, caregivers, spirituality ….. etc. When there are overlaps in a topic the discussion can be posted to more than one place. Sometimes the title can be changed to clarify what the discussion is about. Do you have any suggestions for making this discussion more accessible to the appropriate audience?

@jcold5619: my husband just had his 19th BCG last Friday. The side effects he is experiencing are mainly flu like symptoms such as muscle pain and fatigue, of course burning pain when passing urine. He did not have back pain. Apparently side effects vary but should mostly subside before you start the next treatment. If not, you might discuss with your medical team to see if it makes sense to wait for another week. Drinking lots of water after the holding period is important.
The 1/3 dose was introduced due to the BCG shortage.
All the best.
Jas