BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) side effects

Hello @quahog and welcome to Mayo Connect. My husband had BCG instillations into his bladder and minimal just local side effects. Are you having infusions IV or into bladder? Have you had a fever? Since your symptoms could be a flu or upper respiratory infection, I would recommend you see your primary care physician before another BCG treatment. They can test for the respiratory viruses and give you a quick answer. I would call and postpone your upcoming treatment until you figure this out. If this is a pneumonitis response to the BCG then your oncologist should be taking steps to deal with that and possibly stopping treatment. Start with your PCP and see if you can get an answer.

Thank you for the response. I came up negative on viral infection and my urologist is unconcerned about my symptoms. My cough has just about abated and my other symptoms are just about gone too. I’m scheduled for my fifth treatment tomorrow and they want me to have it (via bladder). The urologist said it was actually a good sign indicating that my immune system is active. Thanks for the advice. I’ll post again post treatment.

I too am the middle of my BCG treatments.

I had similar effects but I also have COPD so the cough and a bit of congestion could be attributed to the COPD.

One symptom I have now is I lost my appetite for eating. In the 2 weeks I lost 4 lbs. I am forcing myself to eat something nutritious everyday. But a few foods just make me gag. Like steak. So I am avoiding those few foods.

Sorry about the side effects you are experiencing. Apparently nausea is not uncommon but I would certainly notify your Dr about the weight loss. I completed my fifth treatment yesterday and the cough and congestion arrived again about four hours after treatment. The urologist gave me an option to forego the last treatment as he felt the BCG was obviously working well in stimulating my immune system and the sixth treatment was probably unnecessary. If my side effects subside I think I’ll go ahead with the sixth to take full advantage of the treatment. I’ll wait and see how this week goes.

Going ahead with my sixth treatment tomorrow. Side effects with the fifth were minimal, a sharp contrast with what I dealt with after the fourth. Still not sure why I had the problems I did but the fifth treatment was a breeze. Anxious to finish the initial six infusions and see what impact it has on prognosis. It seems always to be a wait and see game with cancers.

@quahog, how did treatment number 6 go? How are you doing?

Thanks for asking. Sixth treatment went very well. Only a short spell of flu like symptoms. Did have some blood and burning (first time with treatment). But all side effects were gone by bedtime.
Doc will do a full cystoscopy under sedation in order to look at everything he was initially concerned about and look at the area on the upper area of the bladder that was the site of the initial tumor. I think there is a diagnostic light exam that reveals CIS as well and that’s in the mix. That exam will be on May 20. I was concerned that he was waiting six weeks to do the exam but he was not concerned so I guess I shouldn’t be either. Thanks again.