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Third surgery in 7 months
Hi, I am new to this forum and very concerned with my husbands situation. He had surgery Sept 2017 – removed a 3cm noninvasive T0 tumor. Follow up in December and surgery in Jan 2018 removed a 1cm noninvasive T0 tumor. Follow up this month (April 2018), no tumor but two lesions the surgeon suspects are cancer. Surgery is scheduled next week. Both previous surgeries involved intravesical chemo immediately following surgery. This time depending on pathology, surgeon is strongly considering BCG therapy. He told my husband if the cancer continues to come back, he will need to remove his bladder.
My husband is a smoker and has been trying to quit. He’s committed to put the patch on today, I’m hoping this will help him quit for good. He is very scared and I am hiding how scared I really am. I’ve done research online, but I’m wondering if any one has had bladder cancer reoccur in a short time and if there is a way to beat this. I’m thinking the worse. All information is appreciated. I believe that knowledge is our best defense. Thank you.
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1 Reply
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What was the pathology of the two tumors removed? If they were low-grade, the usual procedure is what was done for your husband, removal of the tumor and a post-op wash with mitomycin. It is possible that the second tumor was present in September, but was missed at the time. Many uros do a second TURB relatively routinely to assure that everything is found/removed.
If these additional “lesions” are like a rash on the surface of the bladder, they might be CIS (carcinoma in situ) which is high grade and highly treatable with BCG. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE ARE NOT DOCTORS AND I AM NOT DIAGNOSING HERE…just listing possibiities!! If this is the case, it is also possible that this was present during the other biopsies and not detected. In my case the first biopsy found a small paplllary low grade tumor and some “areas of irritation.” It was only during the second, follow-up biopsy that CIS was found since the urologist had a much better idea where to sample.
In any event, BCG would be the expected treatment. There is a LOT of information here in the Forum and on the website about BCG. It is very do-able and has a high success rate with high grade non-invasive bladder cancer.
Even if bladder removal is recommended, if the cancer is found before it has metastisized is is a definite cure. Many people lead full and happy lives without a bladder.You really won’t know what he is facing until after the biopsy/pathology are complete.
AND QUIT THE SMOKING!!
Best of luck to you both
Sara Anne
Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
BCG; BCG maintenance
Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
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