Read article Follow up for early bladder cancer
This page tells you about follow up after early bladder cancer. There is information about
Follow up for early bladder cancer
After treatment for early bladder cancer there is still a chance that the cancer could grow back. So your specialist will want you to go for regular check ups. The best way to check your bladder is to have another bladder examination (cystoscopy). You will probably have a cystoscopy to check your bladder 3 months after your treatment finishes.
The more time that passes, the lower the risk of the cancer coming back. But you may need to have regular cytoscopies for up to 10 years.
What if the cancer comes back?
If you had early bladder cancer removed and it comes back inside the bladder, you can have the growths removed during cystoscopy as before. You will probably then have more intravesical therapy.
If your cancer is grade 3, has got more advanced, or is a return of carcinoma in situ, then you may need more intensive treatment. For more information about this, look in the treating invasive bladder cancer section.
You can view and print the quick guides for all the pages in the Treating bladder cancer section.
After your treatment for early bladder cancer, there is still a chance that your cancer could grow back. So your specialist will want you to go for regular check ups.
The best way to check your bladder is by having a cystoscopy. You may have this under local or general anaesthetic.
You will probably have a cystoscopy to check your bladder 3 months after your treatment finishes. Then you are likely to have them at intervals for several years. Your own specialist will decide how often you should have cystoscopies, depending on how likely it is that the cancer could come back in your case.
If your cancer is low grade and at low risk of coming back you may only need to have a cystoscopy once a year for 5 years. After this, your doctor may just discharge you from their list.
If your cancer is moderate grade you may have cystoscopies every 3 months for one to 2 years, then every 6 months for 2 years and then yearly up to 10 years after treatment. The more time passes without the cancer coming back, the smaller the risk of the cancer ever coming back. But there is still a small risk, even after 10 years.
If you had a high grade cancer you may have cystoscopies every 3 months for a few years. And you may have to give a urine sample every 6 months or yearly. The lab will check the urine samples for cancer cells. You will need to have treatment into the bladder at regular intervals to prevent the cancer from coming back. In between these treatments you will have check cystoscopies.
If you had Ta or T1 bladder cancer and it comes back inside the bladder, you can have the growths removed again during a cystoscopy, as before. The specialist will take more biopsies to check that the cancer is still at an early stage. If it is, then you will usually have treatment into the bladder. You will then go back to having regular cystoscopies to check your bladder.
Your doctor may ask you to have more intensive treatment if your cancer is
- Grade 3
- At a more advanced stage than it was
- Carcinoma in situ that has come back after treatment into the bladder
There is more about this in the section about treating invasive bladder cancer.
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