Husband's diagnosis

Patricia,
yes my husband did have a TURB, the doctors report said grade 2 transitional cell carcinoma with focal invasion into the lamina propia, no muscle invasion reported.. and I do wish the docotor had done futher testing (cat scan, bone scan MRI).why he didn't I don't know,Like I said before maybe if he had we wouldn't be where we are today.

Patricia,
yes my husband did have a TURB, the doctors report said grade 2 transitional cell carcinoma with focal invasion into the lamina propia, no muscle invasion reported.. and I do wish the docotor had done futher testing (cat scan, bone scan MRI).why he didn't I don't know,Like I said before maybe if he had we wouldn't be where we are today.

Jeanette, Pat,

It could just be that the tumors were high grade and high risk from the start, and that this is a case where it got away from the doctor. TCC can be aggressive and jump quickly, size doesn't matter. Superficial is just a word, it's all about the grade of the cancer. If the previous tumor was high grade, the following tumors need to go to pathology, and are usually of the same kind. I also think a CT and bone scan were in order before the second round but it may not have shown anything.

These things happen sometimes, to the best doctors and most diligent patients.

Take care,
Wendy

Gosh Jeanette.....in addition to the IVP i'm surprized he didn't order a CT to further show functioning of the tissues of the kidney and surrounding structures. Also a bone scan is usually mandatory in a diagnosis of cancer. Did your husband ever undergo a TURB...a resectioning to determine stage and grade? This is the second case i've heard of on this site where the doctor burnt out the tumors in the office because he was sure they were superficial. I don't know but those little ones can also be CIS lying beneath the tissue. I've not heard of metastasis in superficial bladder cancer.....i've heard of it progressing to invasive and metastasis. Maybe Wendy can jump in here as she's done much more research than i have. Its just highly unusual for superficial to metastasise. It seems like you shouldn't have to be going thru this pain. I'm truely sorry.......Pat

Patricia,
4 yrs ago when my husband was diagnoised they removed the tumor from inside his bladder and gave him 6 rounds of BCG.. at his 6 month check up there were a few small tumors which were removed in the office and again he had another 6 rounds of BCG.. and up until we found that the cancer had metastised to his bones he was going to his urologist every 3 months for his check ups, and the bladder was always good (still is) last one being in june 2006.(diagnoise in aug 2006) so it makes me wonder if the doctor had done futher testing when he first diagnoised (other then just the IVP) where would we be today?

Patricia, Yes trials become standards of treatment and we looked and talked about trials. My husband has told four doctors and anyone else that ask that if a trial was available and would help with the pain or benefit someone else in the future he was all for it. The thing is he has had 9 differnet chemo drugs and a review of all trials was done. None are available due to the responce of the past drugs and the advance of the disease with those drugs. Debbie