Read article Removing early bladder cancer
This page has information about removing early bladder cancer.
If you have early bladder cancer, your specialist will remove the tumours from the bladder lining during a cystoscopy under general anaesthetic. This procedure is called a TURBT (trans urethral resection of bladder tumours). This means that the tumours are removed using a thin tube called a cystoscope. Your surgeon puts the cystoscope into the bladder through your urethra (the tube that connects your bladder to the outside). This is sometimes done during tests to diagnose bladder cancer.
After removing the tumours from the bladder lining your doctor sends them to the laboratory for examination. Any biopsies that the surgeon takes from the rest of your bladder lining will also be sent to the lab to be examined. The pathologist who examines the biopsy samples will tell your doctor which grade of bladder cancer you have.
After the surgeon has removed the areas of bladder cancer they put chemotherapy into the bladder through a tube (catheter). This is called intravesical chemotherapy and reduces the risk of the cancer coming back by about 40%. You may have mitomycin C, epirubicin, or doxorubicin chemotherapy.
Depending on the grade of your cancer, you may not need any further treatment. Or you may need to have further treatment into the bladder with chemotherapy or BCG therapy. Your doctor or specialist nurse will discuss this with you.
In some people the cancer comes back in the bladder lining some time after this treatment. So you will have cystoscopies at regular intervals. Then if you do get further tumours your surgeon can remove them while they are still at an early stage. This may be all the treatment that you need. Or you may also have chemotherapy or BCG treatment into the bladder.
If the cancer starts to spread into the deeper muscle tissues of the bladder it is called invasive bladder cancer. We have detailed information about the treatment for invasive bladder cancer in this section.
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