My 89 year old mum was diagnosed with bladder cancer (CIS) just about 2 years ago. After her TURBT she had an induction course of BCG which was considered to be a success. Subsequently she’s had a least one maintenance course and to be honest I’ve always felt that the hospital missed a round that she should have had which maybe would have helped with where we find ourselves now. The cytoscopy she had in November showed a recurrence and in January/February she had a further induction course of BCG. Enter Covid and the postponement of her next cytoscopy. She finally had this in July with the result that she doesn’t seem to have responded to the BCG. The consultant therefore wants to withdraw her from further BCG treatments and I guess understandably doesn’t think she’s a candidate for bladder removal. His proposal is therefore just to wait and see what happens next and her treat her palliatively as and when! My siblings and I think that’s a really bad idea and have arranged a private consultation with a specialist urology clinic. I’ve tried to research options re chemotherapy/radiation/Chemoradiation and obviously hope something might be appropriate but I believe these are not so successful with CIS. I know it’s also possible to have a second TURBT. If she was able to have that, would more BCG be possible or just not an option because of previous failure? I wondered whether anyone has any experience of treatment after a recurrence which they might be able to share with me before we see the specialist.
Apologies for the long post. My brother and sister and I do rather feel our mum’s been fobbed off. There’s no lymph node involvement presently and it seems crazy to just leave things to a scan in 6 months when you can only imagine what could have happened by then.
thanks so much.
Hello Caddie2011. Sorry to hear about your mum and that BCG has not been as successful as hoped. Bladder removal is a huge operation and it sounds as though mum may not be fit enough for it. Chemoradiation is not usually suitable for CIS as radiotherapy needs a suitable target, but CIS is usually too so spread out like a rash. Many people have recurrent TURBTs to keep removing further growths with ongoing BCG. If BCG has been unsuccessful, then some people have been put on Mitomycin treatment. This is administered in the same way as BCG. It is a chemotherapy treatment rather than an immunotherapy treatment which BCG is. People have had success with this change. Mum is always entitled to have a second opinion if you are in the UK. Best wishes.
