Therapeutic Migration in Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome: Cross-Organ Lessons for Urothelial Healing and Endotype-Guided Therapy

Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is biologically heterogeneous. No single bladder-directed therapy addresses every relevant mechanism. Recent reviews have covered pathophysiology, multimodal care, and biomaterial-based mucosal repair in detail. This review takes a different route and uses therapeutic migration as a translational lens. The concept refers to moving a treatment idea from another specialty into IC/BPS when the same biological problem appears to be active in a bladder endotype. Representative migrations include platelet-rich plasma and cell-based repair strategies, along with neural, immune-directed, and microbiome approaches. We also discuss one unsuccessful migration. The central question is whether the biological rationale still holds in the bladder. We therefore propose a migration filter that considers mechanism conservation, endotype enrichment, feasibility in the urinary environment, safety, and objective target engagement. Urothelial healing is discussed as a tissue-recovery construct for bladder-centered phenotypes, while treat-to-target principles are adapted for mechanism-informed research. Therapeutic migration remains the overarching framework, but symptom control and biological recovery are treated as separate outcomes.