I will try to reply for Cynthia as she is still "recovering." (Before you all feel too sorry for her, she did conclude her journey with a "Grandma Fix" with her two darling little granddaughters!)
TCC is short for "transitional cell carcinoma." The transitional cells are the cells that line the bladder and TCC is the most common form of bladder cancer, and fortunately, the most treatable.
CIS is short for "carcinoma in situ." TCC shows up in two forms, and many of us have both. The first is papillary carcinoma, in which the tumors form stalk-like shapes, sort of like mushrooms, growing out of the bladder lining. These can be either low grade (slow growing) or high grade (rapidly growing and dividing.) CIS form like a rash on the bladder lining. Since it is not a discrete tumor it cannot be removed during a TURB. Unlike breast cancer, for example, where CIS is not really considered serious CIS in the bladder is ALWAYS high grade and fast growing and spreading. It is totally different in all respects from the kind found in the breast. Fortunately for many patients BCG, the treatment of choice for high grade non-invasive bladder cancer, can be curative.
Hope this helps.
If you will go to our home page and click on About Bladder Cancer it will take you to a page that has a box labelled FACTS. There is a glossary there that you can use to find (brief) definitions of a lot of the terms used.
bladdercancersupport.org/resources/glossary-of-terms.html
Sara Anne