Question about Chemo

Good morning, 3 days ago in my urologists office I was told for the 2nd time in 6 months that I have cancer tumors in my bladder. This past July I had a kidney removed due to cancer and now it is showing up in my bladder. 3 months ago and small tumor showed up and he removed it in office. This time he wants to go into surgery and remove it and do a more detailed search. He also wants to biopsy another area in my bladder, it looked lumpy on the screen. Anyone ever had lumpy looking bladder? So on Feb. 5th I am going into outpatient surgery and starting chemo. They are going to put the chemo directly into my bladder using MITOMYCIN. Have any of you had this kind of chemo before and how did you react to it. They say going straight into the bladder is better than in an IV. I would appreciate any and all info. Thanks

Barb

Hi, Barb. Of all cancers, bladder cancer is the most likely to recur, so
the fact that you have a new tumor is not at all unusual. You didn’t
mention the stage and grade of your first tumor. It is essential to know
this, since all treatment choices depend on this information. The more
thorough exam you are getting soon is a good step in this direction. Having
a “lumpy” bladder can mean many things–that’s why it’s important to biopsy
the area and send samples to the pathologist for a diagnosis. The lumps
could be more non-invasive papillary tumors or could be CIS, a higher-risk
form of this disease. Instilling Mitomycin C in the bladder at the time the
tumors are removed helps prevent any errant cancer cells from lodging in the
bladder and starting to grow. Glad to hear that your uro is doing this!
You sound hungry for information about this complex disease, so you might
want to go to the Bladder Cancer Web Cafe (http://blcwebcafe.org/) to learn
everything you can about it. Good luck!

-----Original Message-----
From: Barbnks [mailto:bladder-cancer-cpt7634@lists.careplace.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 4:17 AM
To: crilly@dcn.org
Subject: [bladder-cancer] Question about Chemo