Bladder Cancer (cont.)
Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD
Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.
In this Article
- What is the bladder?
- What are the layers of the bladder?
- What is bladder cancer?
- What is the burden of bladder cancer in the U.S.?
- What are the types of bladder cancer?
- What are bladder cancer causes and risk factors?
- What are bladder cancer symptoms and signs?
- How is bladder cancer diagnosed?
- How is bladder cancer staging determined?
- What is bladder cancer grading?
- What is transurethral surgery or "TURBT" for bladder cancer?
- What is the treatment for superficial bladder cancer?
- What is surveillance for bladder cancer?
- What is the treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer?
- What is chemotherapy for bladder cancer?
- What is the prognosis for bladder cancer?
- Can bladder cancer be prevented?
- Where can people find more information on bladder cancer?
- What research is being done on bladder cancer?
- Bladder Cancer At A glance
- Find a local Oncologist in your town
What is chemotherapy for bladder cancer?
Patients who are diagnosed with metastatic bladder cancer (M stage - M1; cancer which has spread to other parts of the body) are usually treated with chemotherapy. Chemotherapy may also be used in cases of "locally advanced" bladder cancer (T stage - T3 and above and/or N stage - N1 and above) in an attempt to decrease the chances of the cancer coming back after radical cystectomy. This is known as "adjuvant chemotherapy." Another strategy entails administering "neoadjuvant chemotherapy" by giving these medications before radical cystectomy in an attempt to improve the results of surgery and decrease the size of the tumor.
It has been shown that chemotherapy has the potential to control metastatic bladder cancer and increase the chances of cure when used in a neoadjuvant or adjuvant setting along with surgery. However, chemotherapy has its own set of side effects and may not be tolerated by all individuals.
The time-honored chemotherapy regimen for bladder cancer is called the MVAC. It is a combination of four medications given in cyclical form.
- M: Methotrexate (Rheumatrex, Trexall)
- V: Vinblastine
- A: Doxorubicin (Adriamycin)
- C: Cisplatin (Platinol-AQ)
Learn more about: Rheumatrex | Trexall | Platinol-AQ
Some patients with heart disease may not be in a condition to receive Adriamycin and may receive CMV instead (CMV = MVAC - Adriamycin)
An alternative regimen is a combination of gemcitabine (Gemzar) and cisplatin. This is increasingly being used nowadays since some studies have shown that it is equally effective as the MVAC regime with fewer side effects.
Learn more about: Gemzar
Cisplatin, which is the main medication in all these regimens, cannot be given to patients who have an abnormal kidney function. In this case, it may be substituted by carboplatin (Paraplatin), which, however, is not as effective as cisplatin-based chemotherapy.
Learn more about: Paraplatin
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