Dear G,
What a kick in the gut!! I do like the impressions that you are painting of your Urologist, however, and I believe that he is covering all the bases. Please keep us posted.
As far as the familial issue goes, I have heard it both ways. I have had two different Urologists since my Dx and one believes that it is familial and one did not believe that it was familial, that it was just the luck of the draw. My Aunt died very young of kidney cancer and one doctor thought that it could be a related cancer and one doctor did not think that it was related...
Since I have done a lot of research on this and have occasionaly come across a mention of a gene type that makes one more susceptible to bladder cancer, I decided to google again, and this is a surprising hit that I got. I think I will post this in my obscure reasons for bladder cancer thread, too. I'm still looking for the name of another gene that I've come across before...
This case study has something to do with a metabolizing gene and a lack of metabolism of folic acid. I haven't heard this one before.
Polymorphisms of folate metabolic genes and susceptibility to bladder cancer: a case-control study
carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/25/9/1639