In his most recent episode, titled “I Left TV to Fight Cancer. Then I Joined the Pretzel Posse,” Parente offers insight into how he’s battling the disease with Inlexzo, a small, flexible, pretzel-shaped device that releases chemotherapy inside the bladder.

“A little pretzel device floating around inside of our bladders fighting cancer,” Parente says, leaning into a Western theme for the episode. “In fact, I have one floating around right now. Take that, Roy Rogers. So here’s the deal. There’s a new sheriff in town. It’s called Inlexzo.”

The problem with traditional bladder treatments, he explains, is simple plumbing. “You know how your bladder is? It’s like a tank. It fills up, it empties,” he says. “And that’s the problem with getting medicine into my bladder. I keep peeing it out.”

Inlexzo stays in the bladder for three weeks at a time, slowly releasing the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine. “The medicine keeps coming 24 hours a day,” Parente says. “It’s like having a tiny little gunslinger on duty in my bladder.”

The treatment is not without side effects. “Is it always comfortable? No. I gotta be honest,” Parente says. “It can create some bladder irritation, make you feel like you gotta go, give you a sense of sudden urgency.” That feeling, he jokes, turned out to be “a pretty good idea for a name for a YouTube show.”

For him, the trade-off is worth it. “This is an exciting new frontier that can hopefully allow me to keep my bladder and put an end to this cancer mess.”

Inlexzo: A New Option For Bladder Cancer Patients When BCG Immunotherapy Stops Working

How His Bladder Cancer Journey Began

Parente’s journey began in 2025, when he noticed blood in his urine one Saturday morning. Within about eight days, he went from feeling healthy to learning he had a tumor in his bladder.

Doctors removed the tumor a month later in a procedure called TURBT (transurethral resection of bladder tumor). Pathology showed T1 high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, which is aggressive but had not reached the bladder’s muscle wall, so removing his bladder was not his only option. He began chemotherapy delivered directly into the bladder, but the disease kept returning. “My cancer keeps coming back,” he says.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chris Parente (@chrisparentetv)

RELATED: After A Cancer Diagnosis At 39, Groundbreaking New Treatment Option Helps Texas Man Save His Bladder & Get Back To An Active Life

In the recent YouTube episode, Parente doesn’t go into how he qualified for Inlexzo, which is FDA-approved for a specific group of patients.

Now about halfway through his Inlexzo treatments, Parente says the early signs are encouraging. During his most recent cystoscopy, his doctor saw no visible tumors.

“For a guy that’s been fighting cancer for a year, that’s some doggone good news,” he says on his YouTube channel.

“But it’s too early to ride off into the sunset yet. I have an especially stubborn kind of bladder cancer, so who knows what might happen down the line?”

Parente said he’s learning to get comfortable “living in a question mark,” while holding on to hope.

“I do believe deep in my heart the best is yet to come. The healing is yet to come,” he added.

RELATED: The ‘Coach Prime’ Effect: Longtime News Anchor Says NFL Legend Deion Sanders, 59, Helped Him Learn the Warning Signs of Bladder Cancer Before He Was Diagnosed Himself

When First Treatment Stops Working

For many people with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, the first treatment is BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin), an immunotherapy that has been a mainstay of bladder cancer care for decades. It’s delivered directly into the bladder, where it triggers the immune system to attack cancer cells. It works well for many patients, but not all. When the cancer stays or comes back despite BCG, it’s called “BCG-unresponsive,” and the standard recommendation has traditionally been a radical cystectomy, which is surgery to remove the bladder.

Access to BCG itself has been a challenge. The drug has been in short supply for years, with only one manufacturer supplying the U.S. market. A 2023 white paper from the End Drug Shortages Alliance estimated that the market was producing only about 69% of the BCG needed in the U.S., and that thousands of patients a year may not be able to receive optimal treatment.

Merck, the drug’s maker, has said a new manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, will triple its BCG production capacity once it is fully running, and the company expected construction to be completed by the end of 2026. In the meantime, many doctors have turned to alternatives such as the chemotherapy combination gemcitabine and docetaxel.

Inlexzo, the gemcitabine-releasing device once known as TAR-200, is approved for patients whose BCG-unresponsive cancer includes carcinoma in situ, a flat, high-grade form of the disease. A clinical trial called SunRISe-5 is testing whether it can also help patients with papillary tumors, which grow in finger-like projections from the bladder lining.

A Breakthrough For Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer: Padcev Plus Keytruda Drug Combo Could Transform Treatment Around Surgery

How The Device Works

In September 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Inlexzo (also known as the gemcitabine intravesical system or TAR-200), made by Johnson & Johnson. Before then, options for these patients were limited, and many faced bladder removal.

The approval, granted under Priority Review and supported by a Breakthrough Therapy Designation, is a much-needed milestone. It’s the first intravesical drug-releasing device, or device that releases medicine directly into the bladder, ever approved for bladder cancer.

The treatment involves several steps:

• A small, flexible device is placed inside the bladder through a catheter.
• It slowly and continuously releases chemotherapy directly into the tumor environment over three weeks.
• It is then removed and replaced at the next visit.

The whole procedure can be done during an office visit.

“What makes Inlexzo distinct is that it’s not simply delivering intravesical gemcitabine in the way we would traditionally think about it,” Dr. David Aggen, a genitourinary medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview.

“It’s an intravesical delivery system where a device is inserted into the bladder, it remains in place for about three weeks, and then it provides a sustained local release of gemcitabine, which is very different from standard intravesical gemcitabine, where the drug is instilled as a liquid and may have a short dwell time.”

Gemcitabine, the chemotherapy agent inside the device, has been used in bladder cancer for years. But its effect when given conventionally has always been limited because it stays in contact with bladder tissue for only a short window, sometimes 30 minutes to an hour, before it is passed in urine. Inlexzo sidesteps that problem.

“We think the sustained exposure of gemcitabine may result in more drug exposure ultimately to the cancer and that you may have better outcomes. That’s the particular advantage,” Dr. Aggen adds.

In the clinical trial that led to approval, about 8 in 10 patients had no detectable cancer at some point during treatment, and about half of those responses lasted at least a year.

An “intravesical device” may sound intimidating, but Dr. Aggen notes that insertion and removal is a relatively simple in-office procedure.

“The device is inserted as a linear device,” he says. “Inside the bladder, the device is about the size of a quarter. It folds up almost in a pretzel-like shape, and then it’s retrieved at every three-week installation to introduce a new device.”

Patients don’t need to hold their urine or follow any special preparation before the procedure beyond arriving with a non-empty bladder. After insertion, they’re advised to stay well-hydrated (about six to seven cups of fluid per day) and to urinate normally. There’s no need to restrict activity or alter daily routines.

The dosing schedule runs over two years in two phases:

• In the first six months, patients receive the device every three weeks (eight total doses).
• After that, dosing shifts to once every 12 weeks for up to 18 more months (six additional doses).

Despite the enthusiasm around Inlexzo’s results, Dr. Aggen emphasizes that this treatment is not for everyone with BCG-unresponsive disease, and thoughtful patient selection is essential.

“Inlexzo is a favorable option for patients who have BCG-unresponsive disease,” he says. “I think that patients need to have a component of carcinoma in situ. Patients that have pure T1 disease that’s refractory to BCG [still progresses on BCG] are a much higher risk group, and perhaps those are patients who should be sent to their urologist for a discussion of an early cystectomy.”

The treatment schedule can also be taxing on patients, he adds.

“It does require device installation every three weeks for a set period of time, and you need a patient who’s willing and agreeable to go through those procedures,” Dr. Aggen says. “It’s very distinct from BCG, which is given weekly for six weeks, and the frequency of administration may be cumbersome for certain patients.”

WATCH: What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Bladder Cancer?

His advice to patients is to work closely with their urologists and care teams.

“With any intravesical therapy, it’s really important to be on the same page with your urologist about what the surveillance plan is so you don’t miss a cancer coming back more aggressively,” he adds.

Overall, Inlexzo represents a promising new kind of treatment, one that delivers chemotherapy directly to the bladder over time and may help some patients avoid or delay major surgery, but it is not the right choice for everyone.

What This Means for Other Patients

Patients whose cancer stops responding to BCG now have several FDA-approved options to discuss with their doctors.

In addition to Inlexzo, these include Keytruda (pembrolizumab), an immunotherapy given by IV that in 2020 became the first new drug in about two decades approved for BCG-unresponsive disease; Adstiladrin (nadofaragene firadenovec), a gene therapy placed in the bladder every three months, with five-year data showing durable bladder preservation; and Anktiva (nogapendekin alfa inbakicept), which is given alongside BCG to boost the immune response and produced a complete response in 71% of patients in its trial.

RELATED: FDA Approves the First Major New Alternative to Surgery for Bladder Cancer in 20 Years

More options may be on the way. Cretostimogene, an investigational therapy that uses an engineered virus to attack cancer cells, has received FDA breakthrough therapy and fast track designations after a phase 3 trial showed a complete response rate of about 76%.

No single option is right for everyone, and bladder removal remains a valid choice for some patients. If BCG isn’t working for you, consider asking your doctor: Is my cancer considered BCG-unresponsive, and what type of tumor do I have? Which bladder-sparing treatments am I eligible for? Are there clinical trials, like SunRISe-5, that I might qualify for? What are the risks of trying another treatment versus having surgery now?

The upshot: if a first treatment fails, losing your bladder isn’t the only option.

Building a Bladder Cancer Treatment Plan With Your Doctor

Your bladder cancer treatment depends on your tumor type, the stage of the disease, and your overall health, as well as your personal wishes and values. Your doctor is often part of a team that may include surgeons, urologists, medical and radiation oncologists, and pathologists. Before making any decision, it helps to write down your goals, concerns, and questions.

Here’s a general guide for that conversation:

• Know your cancer’s stage and grade. Stage describes how deep the cancer has grown and whether it has spread, while grade describes how aggressive it looks. “For stage, what we’re talking about is the depth of the cancer,” Dr. Jay Shah, associate professor of urology at Stanford University, previously told SurvivorNet. “High-grade means it looks more aggressive to the pathologist under the microscope.” Earlier-stage cancers are more likely to be cured, while later stages may need chemotherapy or other medications along with surgery.

• Understand what type of cell is cancerous. Most bladder cancers are urothelial cancers, which start in the cells lining the bladder. A biopsy lets your team examine the cells and choose the treatments most likely to work.
• Learn your treatment options. Surgery is the most common treatment, sometimes followed by chemotherapy or radiation, while targeted therapy and immunotherapy may be options for some patients. Ask how many visits or procedures each requires, what it will cost, and how often you’ll need follow-up.
• Weigh the risks and side effects. Each treatment carries different side effects, and your age and overall health affect which is best for you. Knowing what to expect can ease fears and help you plan.
• Set your treatment goals. Your goals might be a quick recovery, longer survival, staying at work, or maintaining a certain quality of life. Share them early so your team can work toward them.
• Decide together, and consider other perspectives. Ask why your team recommends certain treatments, whether you qualify for any clinical trials, and whether a second opinion from another bladder cancer expert could help.

Dealing With Your Bladder Cancer Diagnosis

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

---