A urinary drug-disposing approach as an alternative to intravesical chemotherapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Active Research Project
Investigator(s): 
Vanessa Bellat, Ph.D.
Last Updated: 
June 14, 2022

This project involves a proposal to use a small bio-inert peptide as an alternative strategy to intravesical chemotherapy (ITC) for improvement of bladder cancer treatment and survival outcomes. When using the peptide as a drug delivery platform, the chemotherapeutics will be eliminated exclusively via renal clearance with minimal deposition in other main organs. This urinary drug disposing system, which is applied non-invasively (I.V. administration), will provide a continuous drug flow throughout the entire urinary system (URS) and prolong the bladder dwelling time (treatment duration). This same approach could be translated to other urinary system diseases, including kidney and bladder infections, simply by replacing the chemotherapeutics attached to the peptide conjugate with antibiotics.

Weill Cornell Medicine
Department of Radiology
525 East 68th Street New York, NY 10065