low grade bladder cancer non invasive with multiple recurrences and BCG failure

5 years 5 months ago #56026 by doglover
Jes1968,
I just read this and wondered how you were doing. Have you had 6 more low grade tumors develop after your initial TURBT?
How has the gemcitabine treatment responded?
praying all is well with you,

Doglover

DX 10-19 First TURB Low grade, non invasive papillary urothelial carcinoma pTa. Recurrence 11-19 Second TURB DX Papillary Urothelial Neoplasm of Low Malignant Potential (PUNLMP)
Second recurrence discovered June 8, 2020 six months later.

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5 years 6 months ago #55787 by JES1968
I'm back again with pretty good news. I am scheduled for my surgery (#6 since 12/2016) to remove my nimbc tomorrow. Since my last cystoscopy, which was in July, I have had 2 MRIs abdomen and pelvis, to detect any growth outside the bladder and to make sure that the staging of my cancer was correct. Everything was negative and normal except for the bladder cancer which has not invaded the muscle.

On meeting my new doctor at Dana Faber, he has explained a bit about my cancer. He told me that all my cancer is low grade, which he says almost never becomes invasive (only 5% would). He said that the cells in low grade cancer are a different type of cell than high grade cancer. Not the same disease. The bad news is that low grade cancer does not respond as well to treatments like BCG and has a tendency to recur, especially in females. I asked if the number of recurrences I have had are typical. He said that I have had more than the norm, but that the growths are all superficial and we will just keep removing them. This time they are planning to do a gemcitabine wash at time of surgery. My guess is that will be followed by 6x gemcitabine after a month or so for 6 weeks. I'm still hoping for negative cytology after a TURBT.
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