(UroToday.com) Oncology patients experience more severe disease outcomes from COVID-19 infection than the general population. BCG is a live bovine tuberculosis bacillus with immunotherapeutic effects in urothelial cancers, and it is also used as a vaccination against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in parts of the world. As BCG vaccination has been associated with broad protection against viral pathogens, BCG exposure through vaccination or intravesical therapy may modulate host immunity and reduce the severity of COVID-19 infection. At the 2021 ASCO virtual annual meeting, Dr. Andrew Schmidt and colleagues presented results of their study assessing the effect of BCG exposure on COVID-19 severity in oncology patients from the COVID-19 Cancer Consortium (CCC19) registry.