Father diagnosed, new to forum

Hello,
You might want to discuss a partial cystectomy with the urologist for your father.
My husband is 76 with invasive adenocarcinoma bladder cancer.
He has other health issues.
He is having a partial cystectomy this week to remove the tumor and surrounding lymph nodes.
We went to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for the 2nd opinion after the 1st urologist wanted to do a radical cystectomy and remove the bladder and prostate.
I think it was important for his quality of life vs. the RC and using a urinary diversion pouch.
With certain types of tumors, they are having good results with immunotherapy.
Best of luck!
~carol

I am sorry that your dad was diagnosed with T2. Though it is a golden standard to remove the bladder when muscle-invasive bladder cancer is found, the surgery and the recovery takes long. Though there are cases patients who are older than your dad had removed the bladder, considering the risk of bearing the surgery and the recovery process and he may have a challenge in handling external bag (urostomy) because of his eyesight, it may make sense for him to choose the bladder preservation approach. But it needs to be discussed with the doctors.

I do not think every bladder preservation approach is considered just palliative but is rather often considered an alternative choice for curing the disease. There are doctors who are more in favor of bladder preservation as they claim that the survival rate is not much different compared to the surgery. They are patients who choose this route.

In addition, there have been new therapies developed recently such as immunotherapy and gene therapy with noticeable success even for those who do not respond to chemotherapy. I know personally those people.

I think they are several options that you may want to discuss with his doctors.

Your dad is lucky to have someone like you to be his advocate.

Best wishes.

Hi everyone....I will probably end up going to the caregiver forum but just wanted to introduce myself.

My 87 year old father was just diagnosed with aggressive metastic bladder cancer, high-grade, stage 2.

His bladder issues are complicated due to a very enlarged prostate which he has procrastinated about for years. Ironically, the biopsy on that a yr ago was fine. Now with the bladder cancer, nothing can be done about the prostate.

Dad has an appt next wk for a bone and CT scan, then the day after with an oncologist.

Dad is legally blind from macular degeneration and extremely hard of hearing altho he is not frail. Due to the near loss of 2 of his senses, his quality of life isn't the greatest.

I believe his urologist is leaning toward chemo and radiation. Dad declined the bladder removal surgery.

I cannot imagine an elderly patient tolerating and surviving chemotherapy and am wondering is pallative care is in order here.

Any comments are welcome and also any good questions for the oncologist.

Bless you all!