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Bladder cancer

Bird lover 1975
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My Dad (86) has been diagnosed with bladder cancer (stage 2 or 3). He has been offered scraping or assessment for cystectomy. He can’t have vbradio or chemo due to previous prostate cancer. He is unsure if he’ll be approved for it due to Parkinson’s and quadruple bypass (one of the grafts is blocked and cannot be safely be addressed) and polymyalgia. 

He would like to know what likely outcome of scraping would be in regards to quality of life and prognosis and whether he would need multiple scrapings going forward. So far it is unclear whether he would be getting more time by doing this op or it is only controlling symptoms. It is not clear how far it is able to control symptoms. 

As regards to the assessment for cystectomy, what sort of threshold is he likely to have to meet? Could we guesstimate now as to whether he would be a candidate? 

Dad is struggling with pants and current toilet situation so is keen to get a catheter but his Dr seemed to say they would be reluctant to do that post op in case they needed to get in to do more scraping in future. 

thanks in advance 

  • Hi Bird lover 1975,

    Welcome to the online community and hope you are finding the support and information helpful.

    This sounds like a really difficult time for you all right now.

    Sounds like your dad is going through a lot  with his other medical conditions but to also have bladder cancer I can only imagine what is going through your minds.  

    You’re right other treatments and current and past medical history can have an impact on what treatment may be available to your dad. In situation like this we would always advise contacting his treatment team ( Macmillan nurse ) to discuss his situation in more detail. This is because everyone is affected differently by any diagnosis and they would have the greatest understanding in how you dad is affected by all of this. Part of their job is to also help your dad make what we call an informed treatment choice in how his cancer is managed.

    Outcomes and expectations of treatments for bladder cancer vary from person, Cystoscopies (scraping) can be affective but many different factors would influence this such as grade and stage of his cancer .

    Success of this type of treatment would also be affected if the tumour is muscle or non-muscle invasive. it may be worthwhile discussing the treatment team’s expectation

    In regards to side effect of having a cystoscopy looking at this information may be helpful .

    You mentioned your dad is having problems with his current toilet situation. I’m unsure what you mean by this.

    If this is in relation to incontinence issues, this may be managed in different ways such as having a catheter inserted although his team may not want this due to possible increase risk of infections.

    A less invasive way of managing this would to discuss with his team or GP about trying a euro sheath which is a less invasive form of incontinence management or possibly using pads.

    If it is more related to a mobility issue, he may also be referred to a physio or occupational therapist to help with this with possible provision of aids such as a raised toilet seat for example.

    A big part of this is all about what your dad wants, and he must let them know what he is thinking. This is so they can give him the best possible support both physically as well as emotionally.

    On this platform it can be difficult to have a two-way conversation and to fully understand what you are going through.

    If you’d like further explanation or have any other questions, please feel free to recontact us. Or if you think it may help to discuss things with someone outside the loop please feel free to give us a call or contact us via our web chat platform.

     

    take care

    Keith, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

    You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

    Ref KM/HM

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