Wife DX with T2 Micropapillary Cancer...

Hello All,

I want to continue to update this story in hopes it may be useful to others in the future.

As a reminder my wife was diagnosed in August 2019 with MIBC Stage 2 rare plasmacytoid variant bladder cancer. She underwent 4 treatments of chemotherapy that were not effective. She received a radical cystectomy in January 2020 where the pathology stage was upgraded to 3a with no lymph node involvement and clear margins. She has since had clean scans at 3 and 6 months.

It has now been 9 months since her surgery. Recently my wife had a case of bronchitis so we went to the ER. She mentioned to the doctor that she had a bump on her head. They took a CT scan of her head and discovered that there was cancer in her skull. We just completed a biopsy of her skull as well as a total body bone scan and the 9 month CT scan of her neck to her pelvis. The initial pathology of the biopsy from her head indicated that it is most likely the bladder cancer. The bone scan also found spots on her her ribs, her spine and femur. Oddly enough the CT scan discovered no cancer anywhere else. They are comparing the tissue from the cystectomy to the biopsy sample to verify that indeed the bone cancer originated in the bladder cancer.

The oncologist said this will be the first case she has seen that the initial site of bladder cancer metastasis is in the bones. She was very surprised that the CT scan was clean. Things move very fast at MD Anderson. We met with the radiation oncologist today and had the radiation simulation. She will have radiation treatment next week to the skull and the spot on her spine. Will continue with radiation to the other spots after that.

I am sorry that I can not report a more positive outcome at this time. My wife has a good outlook and is ready for the upcoming battle. I will continue to update this thread on regular intervals as we continue this journey.

Thanks to all!

JamesF

Once again, thank you for posting the success story. It is good to read what is possible.
Happy for both of you.

Best,
Jack

Just a quick update since it has been a while.

As a reminder my wife had plasmacytoid bladder cancer. Chemo was ineffective and she was eventually staged at 3a w no lymph node involvement at the time of RC/IC.

She just had her 6 month checkup today. No sign of cancer. She is accustomed to her new normal. Every day she is grateful to still be cancer free. Next checkup will be at the 9 month mark in November.

I will update post then.

Thanks