Can you tell me how serious bladder cancer is?
I just learned my uncle had a MRI done because blood was coming out with his urine. They said "do not count cancer out" now he and I am worried about it. Just finished breast cancer treatment with my wife and know nothing about bladder cancer. Any help would be appreciated.
Cancer - 2 Answers
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1 :
Treat all cancers seriously. But the diagnosis of any kind of cancer is not necessarily a death sentence. I am 5 years out of breast cancer. 20 years ago I would have probably died because we didn't get mammograms on a regular basis. No one ever felt a lump. So just make sure your uncle follows up on treatment. Good luck.
2 :
Blood in the urine from a malignancy could be caused by a couple things: bladder cancer or kidney cancer (usually RCC or renal cell carcinoma). For the bladder--if it is muscle invasive (that is the cancer is penetrating into the muscle of the bladder) then surgery to remove the entire bladder is the usual treatment. Chemotherapy may or may not be used. If it is non-invasive--what is called CIS (carcinoma in-situ) then usually the tumor is removed as much as possible (a maximal TURBT--transurethral resection of bladder tumor). Usually following this procedure the bladder is instilled with a chemical (BCG) to decrease the likelihood of recurrence. CIS is definitely curable and has high rates of survival (95%). Muscle invasive bladder cancer is a bit more grim--in general 50-80% of patients are alive at 5 years. For RCC--surgery is the primary treatment (removal of entire kidney). Depending on the stage chemotherapy or immunotherapy can also be used. Blood in the urine could also be benign--infection, kidney stones, side effect from drugs, etc.
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Title : Can you tell me how serious bladder cancer is
Description : Can you tell me how serious bladder cancer is? I just learned my uncle had a MRI done because blood was coming out with his urine. They ...