Treatment

Hi from France,

Sorry to hear about your story. Is it sure that you can't have cystectomy ? Did you meet an anaesthetist ? Or is it the surgeon opinion ? Is it in an university hospital ? Incredible progress has been made in the management of anaesthesia in frail patients. For iinstance, my husband had a very serious heart attack in 2012 (he was 60 years-old) after an intense cycling effort. And in August 2022 he had cystoprostatectomy with neobladder (11 hours intervention). Everything went well. As a doctor, I'm not saying you should take ill-considered risks, but you need to be sure they are making the right decision. If the intervention is not for you I think radiotherapy should begin as soon as possible. Also keep in mind that many patients live a long time after this therapeutic option !

I wish you the loving support of your family and friends

Catherine

Thank Catherine

the problem is my health in general, on top of a heart attack and stents a few years ago I had a triple bypass in June this year, I am also diabetic, have COPD, heart disease etc so a lot going on as you see hence why they won’t operate.

thanks

Hi Panda4x4 . I had radiotherapy for MIBC but had 3 cycles of chemo first. I had 6 weeks of daily RT but I believe the latest protocol is 4 weeks. Treatment is painless but tiring. I hope all goes well. Best wishes.

Thank you

Hi Panda,

I have pT1 Grade 3 Bladder cancer which is an aggressive type that tends to keep coming back. 

It sounds as though your surgeon has decided this is the best option for you :-

Trimodal therapy

Instead of cystectomy, you may have trimodal therapy as the main treatment for muscle-invasive tumours. Trimodal therapy may be used if a person is unable to have surgery to remove the bladder or would prefer to keep their bladder. It is most suited for people whose bladder is working well and smaller tumours that haven’t spread.

Trimodal therapy involves:

• a shorter surgery to remove the tumour from the bladder (TURBT), followed by
• radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy (chemoradiation). Some people who are not fit enough for chemotherapy will have radiation therapy on its own.

"Studies have shown that trimodal therapy has similar outcomes to radical cystectomy". 

I had 2 TURBT bladder cancer removal procedures, 1 in January, the 2nd in July. They should have been done about 3 months apart but I was having chemo & radiotherapy for a different cancer when the 2nd op was due & I couldn't manage having all of it done at the same time. 

When they did the 2nd TURBT bladder cancer removal op in July (6 months after the 1st op) they found that the bladder cancer had only just started to grow back, so hopefully the 2 month delay will not be a problem for your upcoming treatment. 

I had daily Radiotherapy sessions for 6 weeks for the other cancer & at the same time they zapped the bladder too. I didn't experience any pain or burning with the bladder part of the treatment.

The radiotherapy sessions are really quick, you are in and out of the machine before you know it. I think the longest I was in the radiotherapy machine treating the 2 cancers at once was 18 minutes, but most of the time it was about 10 minutes.  

I wish you the very best of luck. 

Thank you this is helpful.

i had the TURBT in October, I can’t have chemo due to my health, the radiotherapy start Jan 2nd, once again thank you for sharing your story.