They didn't get all the cancer after surgery!

Hi,

It takes some time for the pathology report to come back, so perhaps your father was upstaged from 2 to 3a or 3b. The fatty tissue is removed, along with lymph nodes.

Bladder cancer is a funny beast, some people with stage 3 and/or 3b are actually cured by the surgery itself, but some people aren't, that is why some doctors lean toward chemo as an insurance. Until the last few years it wasn't aggressively advocated unless lymph nodes are involved, but that is changing.

If you want more info about these controversies, you can start here:
blcwebcafe.org/chemocontroversies.asp

In theory chemo should be done early enough to catch any possible escaped cells, but not till a person is well enough to tolerate it. As young as your father is, I would hope he has no other health problems and that surgery went without complications.

Wishing you and your father all the best,
Wendy

Thanks Rick - my sister is in route to the hospital now and will talk to the doctor about this.

After 5 weeks how are you feeling - are you up and around? How has recovery been? When do you start chemo?

Thanks again,

T.R.

TR1492,
I had my bladder and prostate removed five weeks ago. When the pathology report came back it showed I had cells in the outside fatty tissue. They did find negative margins outisde the bladder wall (meaning they didn't find and cells outside the bladder). However since the cells were in the outside fatty tissue of the bladder, I will need to undergo Chemo (Mine is T3A).

I would suggest you ask the doctor for clarification on what he/she meant by fatty tissue. It may be similar to what I had. This means it was removed with the bladder.

Good luck.
Rick

My 60 y/o father went into surgery to remove his bladder last Tuesday. He was diagnosed with Stage 2 bladder cancer. They gave him a neo-bladder, but took his prostrate. The doctor said all went great no problems. Saturday, the doctor comes back and says they didn't get it all, that the cancer is in the fatty tissue.

Why didn't they take that tissue to be sure - wouldn't that be standard procedure? Now they are saying he must undergo chemo. Wouldn't it be better to go back in and get that tissue first then do chemo? And when is an appropriate time after surgery for chemo. And finally, when he asked the doctor his chances, his reply was - not as good as before, but you will be fine - what does that mean???

Sorry for so many questions - but I am in NC and he is in PA and I will not get up there until later this week and info is spotty at best.

Thanks