Health encyclopaedia

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Treatment of Cancer of the bladder

In about half of those people presenting with signs of bladder cancer, the tumour is still in the early stages and is confined to the inner lining of the bladder and can readily treated.

Such early cancers can be destroyed by laser beam or by snipping off the tumour and burning with a hot wire (cautery) passed through a cystoscope. This procedure is known as a transurethral resection of a bladder tumour (TURBT) Some cases are treated by inserting anticancer drugs directly into the bladder. Anti-cancer drugs may be put directly into the bladder to try to prevent the cancer from recurring.

If the cancer is first discovered at a stage when it has already spread deeply into the wall of the bladder, locally in the lower abdomen or widely throughout the body, major surgery and/or radiotherapy will be necessary. The whole bladder may have to be removed. Radiotherapy may be used to treat invasive bladder cancer to try and avoid having to remove the bladder.

Surgical removal of the bladder is called cystectomy. After cystectomy, the ureters, which constantly bring urine down from the kidneys, have to be connected elsewhere. They may be implanted into the colon so that the urine passes out with the faeces, or they may be implanted into an artificial bladder made from an isolated segment of bowel which drains out through the skin. Such transplantation is called urinary diversion.

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