Mom just had TURB and I have questions

Kim,

I found this on Medscape concerning 2nd TUR's for residual tumor. The study was ironically at Sloane Kettering....

Here is the referenced site:

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408997_2

Regards,
Rosemary

Kim,

Overtreatment of bladder cancer is just as bad as undertreatment. If your mom's pathology shows a low grade papillary such as a TA grade 1 there is no other treatment needed but rather just surveillance at a 3 month interval. Bladder cancer and other cancers are no longer death sentences that require chemo or radiation to keep from being a fatality. So much depends on the type, stage and grade of the cancer. We can better advise you when you have the pathology report. But generally speaking low grade papillary no additional treatment needed. Now if it is some other type of tumor like CIS or one of the other 15 plus other types of bladder cancer, additional treatment will be discussed.

Kim,

Chris was absolutely spot on, but just throwing in one further issue. My first TUR was biopsied as Ta G1, which is very low risk. When the 2nd TUR was done 6 weeks after the first, the residual tumor showed mostly Ta G1 with some high risk focal areas. In other words, I became high risk and had to have BCG treatments.

Hopefully a Bladder Cancer Specialist at Sloan-Kettering is just that. He is a top-notch, know's- what- he's- doing kind of a guy.

But you might want to ask whether he is considering a 2nd TUR in case of residual tumor. It may be that mine was done just because of the size of the tumor, and the 2nd procedure was thus determined that way.

Wishing your Mom the very best,
Rosemary

Kim,

If the tumor is low grade as the doctor suspects, then there would be very little chance of metastasis (cancer spread) or invasion, so the typical treatment is to just go back in the bladder and check periodically (no chemo or immunotherapy).  If something changes and she gets recurrances and/or higher grade tumors, then more aggressive treatment may become warranted.

Be thankful at this point (if the tumor is in fact low grade) it looks like your mom is in good shape.  Aggressive bladder cancer treatment has risks to the bladder as well, so if it is not necessary in your doctor's view - be thankful.

My mom was just diagnosed with bladder cancer ten days ago. She is going to Sloan Kettering in NYC which is supposedly a great cancer center and she is seeing a bladder cancer specialist there, but I am still so skeptical. She had her TURB this morning and her doc removed one tumor. (Don't know the size.) The doc said that it appears to be low grade but he can't say for sure until he gets the biopsy results. The interesting part is that he told my dad that if the turmor is low grade, as he suspects, no further treatment would be warranted at this point and he would see my mom in 2- 3 months. Is this right? I worry this isn't aggressive enough. Should she get another opinion? I fear she may not want to go for a second opinion because we had to really convince her to go to Sloan in the first place (she has to travel to get there.) I guess I am just surprised he didn't even mention BCG treatments. I know I may be jumping the gun by posting this before we even have the biopsy results, but I want to be armed with as much knowledge when we get the results so I can ask the relevant questions.

Kim