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Gina, CIS is always considered high grade whereas Papillary tumors are mostly low grade.  CIS can be aggressive and has a 70% recurrence rate. I would recommend getting a copy of the pathology report. Also ask your Dr. to be more specific as to stage and grade.  BCG is the treatment of choice for CIS and there is a lot of success using it but people need to have cystos regularly to monitor bladder cancer.  Julie (who's husband has CIS since 2001)

Gina...what did your pathology report state? You should request it from your uro.
Patients are sometimes diagnosed with precancerous lesions, called carcinoma-in-situ. Carcinoma-in-situ occurs when the lining of the bladder undergoes changes similar to cancerous changes without any invasion into the deeper tissues. Hence, while the cells themselves have cancer-like qualities, there is no risk of spread, as no invasion has occurred. However, both papillary bladder cancers and cancer-in-situ may become invasive, so treatment is very important.......sounds ambiguous i know...
I'm a good case in point...i had a single tumor arising out of CIS(so my CIS was the precursor) which had become invasive because i ignored the rusty colored urine which should have alerted me....but then i'd actually never heard of bladder cancer so the thought never entered my mind......i just figured i ate something funny..or to much coffee. The gross hematura however did get my attention!
Pat

Dont exactly know if CIS is worse then papillary tumor. I do think the redness can be CIS. The good news is that CIS responds very well to BCG treatments.

thank you!...so is cis somehow "worse" than a papillary tumor?...my doctor didn't use all these terms when describing my cancer!!...she did say that i had some "redness" around my tumor...could that have been cis?...

CIS stands for Carcinoma in Situ......Usually describes non invasive flat tumors on the bladder wall.