Mom just had TURB and I have questions

Well we didn't get the pathology report yet, but someone from Sloan called my mom to schedule her for a pelvic x-ray. Can anyone tell me why this would be ordered? My mother did have a bone scan that came back negative, so I am curious about what an x-ray would show that the bone scan did not. This has me a little freaked out, because just a few days ago the doc was telling us it looked like it was low grade, now he's requesting an x-ray. Am I panicking for nothing?

Kim

one thing for sure size is no indication of stage and grade.....my uro said my tumor was so small he couldn't find it at first.......it ended up being CIS...T2.......nasty little guy huh?
Pat

Hi Kim,

You sound a lot like I did 8 yrs ago when my sister was diagnosed with what sounds like the same thing your mother has. She also goes to Sloan. I was also confused when the doctor removed the tumor and advised no further treatment. After many months of research and networking, I came to understand the hows and whys of his approach and now I'm glad that my sister never received other treatments. She had a couple of recurrences the first year (who knows, they might have been leftovers from the TUR and not true recurs...even cystoscopy misses up to 10% of tumors~).

You got input from others here of the subject of re-TURs, understaging and other concerns. If the tumor is staged at T1, then re-TURs are strongly advised to removed residual tumor, followed by immunotherapy/BCG (most of the time). The most important thing is what the pathology report says, so please let us know how that turns out.

Good luck with things,
Wendy

Hi kim...i'm one of those statistics at Memorial Sloan and i'm so happy that i am. Dr. Herr performed my second TUR and got what the first uro did not...cleaned up the margins and i was most impressed. Its worth the trip....these people are absolutely tops in their field. Its well worth the trip. By the way when you talk with them they can give you the names of hotels nearby that give discount rates for their patients. Pat

Kim,

My understanding from what my doctor told me is that the "residual" tumor that he found on my 2nd TUR was left over from the initial TUR.. He told me that it was very hard to "get it all".

That is just my understanding.

Warm regards,
Rosemary

Thanks so much for your quick responses to my inquiry. This website is a God send. Rosemary: I checked out the article you posted. Can you tell me exactly what residual tumors are? Are they new tumors or are they the remains of a tumor that wasn't fully removed the first time? This is all so new I am still trying to learn the lingo.



Kim