Bladder Cancer

Hospice care is designed to provide care to patients at the end of life. The term originates from the same root as “hospitality,” the idea of providing shelter to a...

The most basic credo of modern medicine is “first, do no harm.” Many of the treatments that we now have available, although often lifesaving, can be painful or difficult for...

I have never thought of dying before, but now that I have been diagnosed with bladder cancer, I find myself wondering, are there things that I should do to prepare...

Most patients become involved in a clinical trial at the invitation of their own physician. Even at the largest centers, any individual physician will be involved in only a small...

A clinical trial is the process through which new medications or therapies are tested to determine their ability to perform their stated task. They are also used to evaluate surgeries,...

Metastatic bladder cancer is generally quite difficult to treat. Current treatment for bladder cancer that has spread outside of the bladder is aggressive chemotherapy. Most often, a combination of four...

Some cancers produce specific substances that can be measured in the blood. Many readers will be familiar with the relationship of PSA to prostate cancer. After surgery for prostate cancer,...

The spread of any cancer outside of its organ of origin is called a metastasis. Bladder cancer tends to metastasize first to the lymph nodes in the pelvis. This is...

Whether bladder cancer is superficial or invasive, it must still be confined to the bladder to be treated successfully by surgery. Once the tumor escapes from the bladder, it is...

If we know that bladder cancer results from damage to a cell’s genes, can’t we just fix the genes? There has been much excitement in recent years about our growing...

Bladder-sparing protocols have largely shown similar rates of long-term survival compared with immediate cystectomy. The studies have been criticized, however, as falsely improving their results by selecting only those patients...

Bladder-sparing therapy refers to any approach to the management of muscle-invasive bladder cancer in which the goal is to avoid radical cystectomy. There are a variety of approaches, mostly based...

A ureteral stent is a long, soft tube that stretches from the kidney to the bladder. You have probably heard about cardiac stents for people who have clogged arteries. These...

The immediate surgical risks of a partial cystectomy are similar to the risks for a radical cystectomy. These include bleeding, infection, damage to adjacent organs, and so forth (see Question...

To be eligible for a partial cystectomy, the tumor must be just in the right place and just the right size. Tumors at the dome (top) of the bladder are...

A partial cystectomy is the removal of only that part of the bladder that has cancer in it. It essentially takes the place of the TURBT in other bladder-sparing protocols....

A continent urinary diversion provides a reservoir for the urine that can be drained every few hours by a catheter inserted by the patient. A segment of bowel is used...

Long-term problems after an ileal conduit are not uncommon. Overall, up to two thirds of patients will experience some type of problem. These problems can be categorized as follows. Stoma:...

Having a bag on your abdomen will not prevent you from doing the things that you used to do before surgery. The bag is pretty secure when snapped onto the...

Removal of the entire bladder, radical cystectomy, is the gold standard treatment for invasive bladder cancer. Rarely, individuals may be candidates for less invasive surgery or bladder-sparing regimens. Historically, the...

The advantages of a neobladder over a urostomy or continent diversion are primarily lifestyle related and cosmetic. A neobladder is an attempt to replace the bladder with as close to...

A neobladder is one of the options for reconstruction of the urinary tract after surgery. Other options include an ileal conduit or a continent cutaneous diversion. A neobladder is an...

The most important part of the decision-making process is to talk with your urologist openly about your concerns. The two of you should decide together which option is best given...

This is an important question. Obviously, your body still needs to make urine. It would be ideal to replace your bladder with an artificial or synthetic bladder. Unfortunately, no one...

More attention has been focused on the effects of surgery on male sexual dysfunction than has been focused on female sexual dysfunction. Surprisingly, it is only in recent years that...