My 76yr old father had undergone outpatient surgery to have a mass removed from his bladder. The pathology report came back that he has Stage 2 Invasive Transitional Bladder Cancer. The Dr recommended that he undergo bladder removal surgery and given my dads health and age (76, overweight, smoker, slight emphysema, medication for HB pressure & blood thinners, borderline diabetic, zero energy, can't walk very far) believes the benefit outweighs the risk. The doc said that he would bring in a General Surgeon to help as, ideally, he'd like to get him on and off the table as quickly and safely as possible. We're looking at a 4-6 hour surgery. However this information was contingent based on the results of a few more tests; MRI abdominal & pelvic scan and a bone scan.
The Dr phoned and told him that the results from these tests came back clear and that he has a small spot on the bladder wall. This is a good thing as we now have more hope.
Dad is very scared to undergo surgery as his gut instinct is that he's not going to make it off the table. The family shares his feelings.
He has heard of bladder infusion chemo and we are trying to find out more information about it, if he's a candidate, success rates, complications, etc?
Also, the doc told him that if he choose to do nothing (dad asked) then he would be looking at a 6month to 2 year time frame more swaying toward the two year mark. If he were to undergone bladder removal surgery he was looking at a 75% 5yr survival rate which I don't understand.
Can anyone shed some light on any of this, point me in the right direction or provide any suggestions?
Thank you,
Diane
