life expectancy in percentages...

I think if you go only by the numbers, RC is the choice.

But, my approach was to be aggressive as possible in treatment and I had decided to go RC even if my recurrence wound up being T0. It turned out to be T2 anyway so I got the RC.
It was "barely" T2 (kind of like where the article Pat refered to indicated splitting T1 into different subgroups).

I specify what I did because I want you to understand that I have a bias toward most aggressive treatment with the most chance for eliminating the bladder cancer once and for all.

Mike

Rick,

That's a good thing. Keep asking.



Mike

My interest in the percentages is to find some balance to make my very final decision between bcg and RC Thanks for all of your comments.. I am a guy who asks any question that comes to mind. Even if there is no answer, that in itself is an answer and that question can be put aside. Hox

Rick,

I understand the desire to find percentages as I tried to do the same thing. You will find things all over the map and if you don't read all the fine print to understand how they did the calculations, you may misinterpret. I know I did.

Often, they do not indicate if the person died from something else.

I can tell you that if it is caught before spreading, it is worth the investment to get treated aggressively.

Consider all the things you can do now to improve the percentages for yourself.

I know the precentages of long term survival are very high for T0-T2 if caught early and treated aggressively.

It was 2006 when I was first dx with high grade T0.
Recurrence in 2008 and got an RC.
So far all clear.
Statistically, I am 100% alive.

Mike

Hox; hope you don"t mind me jumping in here with my two cents.
But this is my third major cancer in twenty years. I started worring about the percentage thing on my first cancer, and my chances were not good, but you know it didn,t take me long to figure out that all we are talking about is percentages over
a large number of people. What do they really mean? If my chance of survival is 95%, what does that matter if i fall in
the other 5%. They are only numbers, you can roll them around
in your head forever in the end it will do no good to worry about them. All you can do is get the best care you can and try to take the best care of yourself that you can, and pray
for the best!
What are the percentages i would still be around today? They
must be almost zero, but here i am butting in on your post.
Just saying it's okay to check out the numbers, but i would hope you wouldn't worry about them.
Duke

wow Hox..thats a loaded question with probably too many variables to give an answer to!! I think the US has an average life span of 77.7 yrs at present..women 5 yrs longer...Canada seems to have a better rate. As for bladder cancer i really don't pay much attention to the stats as there are too many variables...where treatment was given, who the surgeon was, ...lots of bad uro's out there, lots of late diagnosis...
the 5 year survival rate for women with bladder cancer is 78% which is equal to the 10 year survival rate for men and the 10 year bladder cancer survival rate is 69% for women, which is the 15 year survival rate for men. The bladder cancer survival rates for women are thus 5 years less than for men. Pat