PST wrote:I got a phone call with my pathology results today: Stage TaNxMx, Grade 1. Some biopsies were done of the rest of the bladder and there were no signs of Tis. There was a second tumor just getting started next to the first, but otherwise I guess things couldn't be much better. I was told to come back in three months. The doctor does not recommend a repeat TURBT or intravesical therapy under these circumstances. I would be interested if anyone regards this as unsound advice with low-grade non-invasive disease, but two adjacent tumors. It sounds like Maryland_Mike's doctor would agree with mine about BCG because the tumors were in one area.
This is all great news and I ought to be elated, but I feel strangely down, maybe because I psyched myself up to get through this and have deflated a bit now that the crisis is over.
It sure is nice to have people to tell who understand what you're saying.
PST - That's good news regarding your staging and classification data! Hopefully you will remain in a stable condition for years to come. To reinforce your urologist's decision to wait for intravescial therapy and monitor your condition, I offer this segment from the NIH National Cancer Institute's discussion on Stage 0 (Ta,N0,M0 and Tis,N0,M0) bladder cancer:
"Intravesical therapy with thiotepa, mitomycin, doxorubicin, or bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is most often used in patients with **multiple tumors or recurrent tumors** or as a prophylactic measure in high-risk patients after TUR. Administration of intravesical BCG plus subcutaneous BCG following TUR was compared with TUR alone in patients with Ta and T1 lesions. Treatment with BCG delayed progression to muscle-invasive and/or metastatic disease, improved bladder preservation, and decreased the risk of death from bladder cancer."
Source: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/bladder/HealthProfessional/page5.
The NIH NCI website has lots of information and references on our affliction.
Cheers - Maryland Mike