Hi,
Yes, tons of folks passing through here have had chemo after surgery, in fact some have had it before surgery as well. Radiation (external or brachytherapy) is much more popular in Europe and hardly used in the US aside from either a)bladder sparing protocols or b)palliation of symptoms for metastatic bladder cancer.
There is not yet a universally accepted chemo protocol, though a newer 2 drug combo (Gemzar and cisplatin) seems to be replacing the standard 4 drug combo of MVAC which is more toxic; some experts say do chemo before surgery and some say do it later, but most agree that chemo should be for those who have advanced, aggressive muscle invasive tumors. Until relatively recently chemo was held for those with advanced tumors (T4), but some experts these days are giving it pre-op for T2 tumors; this is all part of a wide effort to increase survival rates post-op which haven't changed much in 30 years.
It is well known that high volume institutions that do many cystectomies have the best survival rates for this surgery. Experience really does count here. One of the top surgeons in the US and maybe the whole world-Herr from MSK-has written that a well done surgery is more important than chemo before or after...and he's done a lot of research on it too.
I know many folks who had T3 tumors, no chemo and get long term survival. I know folks who had T4 tumors/lymph nodes involved, got chemo, then surgery and are cancer free many years later. Same with surgery followed by chemo.
So...if needed chemo has been shown to actually help; bladder tumors are considered chemo responsive, though that's when it's the "normal" cell type of bladder cancer-transitional cell carcinoma. Rare cell types are often treated differently but you shouldn't worry about that as rare types are just that-rare.
Webcafe covers some of the ongoing controversy about pre or post-op chemo under 'chemos used' in the 'invasive bladder cancer' section on the main site.
Keep asking questions..
Wendy