My Dad was just diagnosed with bladder cancer-Help

Dear Mike,

Thank You so much for your quick response.

I'm so happy for you and for your family !!! First I want to wish you happy new year and I wish you a lot of health for you and all your family.

The two slides are now with my dad and he is going to take them to USA with him. I'm worrying about waiting so long until the next biopsy. Is there a chance for the cancer to get more advanced or spread within this waiting period? Is there something we can do during that time so it doesn't get worse?

Also I apologize to take you back in hard times, but can you please tell me what kind of treatments they did on you and for how long?

Thank You so much for your time and help.

Best Regards,
Sargis

Sargis,

The doctor is suggesting the standard protocol for testing. There should be a 2nd TURBT 4-8 weeks after the first one. The reason for this is that bladder cancer is very often under-diagnosed and therefore under-treated.

Two specimens from a biopsy cannot be identical. They can have similar characteristics but if the doctor slices a tumor in half, it is highly likely that one half is slightly different from the other and one can be invasive to muscle and the the other not. Even two pathologists looking at the same slide can have different interpretations.

He should have the slides from both biopsies shipped back to the hospital in the U.S.
Pathology is open for some amount of interpretation and you want the slides from the two, plus when he gets the next biopsy, to be read at a top pathology center at a top bladder cancer hospital.

I was T2 G3 and am now cancer free for over three years.

Mike

My name is Sargis. My family lives in California, USA. My dad (he is 56 years old) recently flew to Armenia for few months on vocation and about one-two weeks before his flight he noticed that he has some blood clots in his urine. He left on September 18, 2011. Over there in Armenia he went to doctor and they made CT Scan and found out that he has some kind of tumor in his bladder and they said that they need to do a biopsy. So on December 15th, 2011, they made a biopsy and the doctor said he removed the tumor/cancer and he sent the samples to the labs to determine what stage it is in and how deep it is in the bladder. He divided the sample to two parts and he sent each part to seperate laboratory. Unfortunately both of the labs gave two different results. One of them said that the stage is G1 T1 (so I think they said that the cancer cells are not found in the muscle layers) and the other lab said it is G2 T2x (I believe they said that there are some cells in the muscle layer). The results were pretty different and the doctor didn't know what to do so he made some kind of decision on his own and said I will diagnose it as T1 cancer but he said another biopsy needs to be done after 4-6 weeks because if they do it now they will not get correct results because of the wounds and burnings. Now my dad decided to come back to USA and continue the treatment here. My whole family is very worried and confused. We are all in shock. We are trying to find as much info as we can everywhere.
I have some questions that cannot find any answers:
1. Is it possible that two labs can send different results for same tumor or the doctors and laboratories in Armenia are doing something wrong?
2. Is it true that after one biopsy we need to wait 4 to 6 weeks to make another biopsy? Because we don't want to waste time and we want to make another biopsy here in USA as soon as he comes back.
3. Is there something that you can suggest to us about this whole situation?

Awaiting for your replies and opinions.

I really appreciate your help and Thank You in advance!

Sargis