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Dad probably has bladder cancer
I’ve been reading the forum for a few days. A year ago my father had hernia surgery, all went well, they removed a testicle also due to the size of the hernia and those tests came back fine. I found out about two weeks ago my 87 year old father was found to have tumors on his bladder from a CT scan that was performed. He indicated he would have a biopsy with probably an overnight stay. I’m assuming a TURBT I believe it is called. It sounds like they are leaning towards bladder cancer but didn’t say for sure. (I’ve been thru the cancer thing with my husband, he had testicular cancer and that was a walk in the park compared to this).
He found out today the surgery is scheduled for March 8th and to plan for overnight, it’s 2.5 hours away. Well, later on today, my mother informed me she called the ambulance since he was in so much pain. Turns out he could not urinate. Initially, it looked like he would be sent back home with a catheter. Good, he got some relief but thinking maybe that surgery would be moved up. Turns out they are sending him to the hospital where he would have the surgery because of his kidney function, concerns due to the backup urine he was having. When he called to tell me he was going to that hospital now later today, he mentioned the surgery will possibly be on this coming Monday now.
What a ride it has been already. I can only think the worst and this isn’t going to end well. I guess I am looking for some guidance, I know the worst case scenario is bladder removal and don’t know if he could survive that, but he has been strong and healthy all these years other than a pacemaker about 8 years ago. To add to the scenario, my mother isn’t well and is rarely left alone. Me and my sibiling are all ready to help, but we are not health care givers. Is there any hope? Thanks for reading! Take care all!
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1 Reply
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I only can support you by providing the actual data.
50% of people diagnosed with bladder cancers are TaLG. It is a type of tumor which does not progress. Usually, no further treatment is required after removing tumor (TURBT).
25% are diagnosed with T1HG or CIS which are considered high risk but not invaded to muscle of bladder. Usually treated with BCG into bladder.
20% are diagnosed with T2 and deeper, which invaded muscle of bladder. Typically removal of bladder is recommended because there will be high change that cancer cells migrate to other key organs (metastasis) though blood and lymphatic channels of muscle. If the tumor invaded shallow in to the muscle, they may treat it with Tri-Modal Therapy, which is resect tumor area as much as possible, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. The effectiveness of TMT has shown to be the same as removal of the bladder in selected patients.5% are diagnosed with metastasis.
In case of your data, who is 87 with comorbidity, the hospital may recommend to opt to other treatment than removal of bladder, which used to be typically chemotherapy and radiation. Chemotherapy usually involves cisplatin which is known to work well for bladder cancers but it is known to have side effects – renal toxicity and ototoxicity. Recently, a new treatment was approved. It is a targeted chemotherapy chemotherapy (PADCEV) and immunotherapy combination (Keytruda) which double the survival rate compared to chemotherapy for advanced and metastatic bladder cancer. PADCEV+Keytruda have its own side effect but less than and different from cisplatin based chemotherapy.
I think there are now several options in choosing optimum treatment for your dad depending upon the result of analysis of cancer tissues which will be obtained at TURBT.
Best wishes
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