-
Gemcitabine instillation after bladder biopsy
I haven’t posted in this form for several years. I was first diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2015 at that time I had TURBT and tumor was 3 cm but low grade non muscle invasive. I had a small recurrence in 2017 removed with biopsy in the office and have been going through surveillance cystoscopy every 6-12 months and today i was told that i might have another recurrence at the biopsy site but that require deeper biopsy and procedure done in the OR. The doctor was also considering Gemcitabine instillation after biopsy. Do you have experience with that and what’s the common side effects? I always knew the high risk of recurrence and going 7 years without recurrence was blessing and I can’t complain at all. Im in my late 30s and I was diagnosed in my late 20s. Thank you and God bless you all
-
2 Replies
-
Thank you for your response
-
For various reasons, bladder cancer is known to have higher rate of recurrence whether is low grade or high grade. What is more concerned is the risk of progression. We want to avoid the tumor to progress to muscle tissue where many blood vessels and lymphatic vessels are found, from where cancer cell can escape to and migrate to other organs. Low grade will not with exceptions progress to high grade as biologically mutated genes of low grade tumors are different with high grade tumor. In this sense, I would not worry about the recurrence except nonsense of going through TURBT again. Gemcitabine right after TURBT for low grade tumor is recommended procedure by AUA guidelines. It is intended to kill cancer cells which could have landed on other parts of bladder during TURBT, I did not have Gemcitabine but it is administered into bladder, so the side effects will be local. Also, it is administered only once. Typically, side effects of intravesical chemotherapy happen more as it is administered weekly and multiple weeks.
Sign In to reply.
