Tumor cell dissociation‐enhanced intravesical chemotherapy of orthotopic bladder cancer

Abstract

Frequent intravesical chemotherapy is still the adopted clinical option after bladder cancer surgery with low adhesion, poor selectivity, low permeability, and drug resistance. Herein, we develop an ingenious bladder cancer dissociation method to enhance intravesical chemotherapy and tumor self‐exclusion with urine. Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), a common Ca2+ chelator, is loaded with the typical clinical bladder instillation drug doxorubicin (Dox) in chitosan‐modified hollow gold nanorods and subsequently coated with cancer cell membranes. After bladder perfusion, the nanoplatform exhibits high affinity toward bladder tumors under homologous targeting, assisting in long‐term retention. Under NIR‐II laser irradiation, the photothermal effect accelerates the unloading of cargo, and the released EDTA then disrupts intratumoral junctions by depriving and chelating Ca2+ from the intercellular calcium‐dependent connexin. The consequential intertumoral dissociation gives access to the deeper penetration of Dox and allows the exclusion of the shed small tumor masses from the body with the urine. This distinctive tumor dissociation concept holds great promise for modern clinical intravesical chemotherapy and perhaps for other gastrointestinal malignancies.