I was diagnosed with bladder cancer this past January after a CT Scan showed a 2.3 cm mass on my bladder wall. TURBT surgery in mid January and the pathology report showed: "non-invasive high grade papillary urothelial carcinoma". The pathologic TNM stage shows: pTa NX M-not applicable. The surgeon tells me all the cancer they could see was removed but there's always a possibility of microscopic cancer cells still being in my bladder (cancer has not spread anywhere else). I just finished six weeks of BCG immunotherapy treatments that, while not on my favorite things to do list, was tolerated well. I was under the impression that I would need cystoscopies ever three months for the first two years so was surprised when the RN told me after my last treatment that the doctor wanted me in for a cystoscopy six weeks from the last immunotherapy treatment and that dependent on what that showed, I may or may not need a second round of immunotherapy. This kind of threw me for a loop as I hadn't been expecting it. I guess what I'm asking this group is first, can anyone decipher the TNM stage and what it means in my case? Secondly, is what I'm being told fairly normal for recently diagnosed bladder cancer patients? After the surgery, my doctor told me that while the cancer had not spread or invaded the walls of the bladder, it was a squamous differentiation which means it was spreading along the bladder walls but that it had been caught early but was considered a high grade tumor and that was why he was suggesting I have the (initial) immunotherapy treatment. ANY clarification or help would be very much appreciated as while I can handle any news (I'll be 70 in June by the way), what I can't handle well is not being clear on exactly what I have and where I stand. Thanks for listening and sorry this was so long!
