Bladder Cancer Treatment Choices
There are lots of various remedies obtainable for individuals diagnosed with bladder cancer. Treatment depends primarily on the stage of cancer. A cancer caught early sufficient will need much less dramatic measures than much more advanced cancers. Probably the most typical treatment choices are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy. In particular instances, your physician might combine two or much more treatment choices, most generally combining surgery with chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Surgery might be performed with both early and advanced bladder cancers. When bladder cancer is caught early on, the tumor might be removed via the urinary opening, or urethra. This entails inserting little surgical instruments along with a laparoscope via the urethra. The laparoscope is like a little telescope and is utilized to discover the tumor and successfully eliminate it. This kind of surgery is known as a transurethral resection and rarely outcomes within the patient requiring an external urine collecting technique.
As soon as bladder cancer has spread, the surgical treatment generally entails total or partial bladder removal. A partial bladder removal (cystectomy) is frequently reserved for patients with much less invasive kinds of bladder cancer (generally cancers that begin in cells related to frequent infections or irritations) that happen near the top of the bladder. A total, or radical, cystectomy might also involve removal of nearby tissues. For men, a radical cystectomy frequently consists of removal of the prostate, the lymph nodes near the hip and also the semen conducting tubes. For a woman, a radical cystectomy also consists of removing the reproductive organs (uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes), component of the vagina and also the urethra. In the event you do undergo surgery to eliminate your bladder cancer, you might need an opening for urine discharge (urostomy). Recent advances in surgical procedures are decreasing the quantity of individuals with urostomies.
Chemotherapy may also be utilized to treat bladder cancer, frequently in mixture with surgery. Chemotherapy is really a entire body treatment, meaning it affects the whole body not just the bladder. This is why numerous chemotherapy patients encounter side effects like nausea, bruising, headache and fatigue. Chemotherapy uses drugs (for instance valrubicin, thiotepa and doxorubicin) to kill cancer cells. These drugs could be given either within the type of a pill to be swallowed or injected into a vein. If your bladder cancer is caught early sufficient, you might have the option of receiving chemotherapy directly into your bladder via the urethra.
Radiation therapy may also be utilized to treat bladder cancer. This might be utilized following surgery to kill any cancer cells that might have been missed by the surgeon. You will find two methods radiation therapy might be performed, you might either obtain a dose of radiation from a machine, or your tumor is planted with radioactive ‘seeds’ that slowly release their radiation. The side effects of radiation therapy could be an inflamed rectum, inability to control your bladder muscles, rash, or impotence (in men).
Immunotherapy, also known as biological therapy, is really a treatment created to increase a person’s immune method so the body can rid itself of the cancer. This is accomplished by injecting a vaccine derived from the tuberculosis bacteria into the urethra. This vaccine puts the immune method on high alert and causes it to kill the cancer cells. Typical side effects to this treatment choice are an inflamed bladder or prostate and flu-like symptoms.
