How bad is Bladder Cancer for an 84 year old woman?
Best answer:
At her age, operations and chemotherapy are very risky. Maybe it's time to let her decide... Since you said they are going to "inject a bacteria into her bladder", that implies the tumor is confined to the inside wall of the bladder; she's probably getting six treatments with "killed TB" after a "trans-urethral resection of the bladder" where they cut the tumor out, and then stimulate the body's own defense mechanism to attack any remaining cancer cells. She'll be a little uncomfortable for about 30 minutes a week for six weeks while they do the treatment, and then she'll probably be just fine. Although she'll probably need a hug!
Hopefully she doesn't smoke any more.
Best wishes to Grandma!
Bladder cancer - age group 15-44 years - number of patients observed
Image by sniperslaststand
How fast does bladder cancer grow?
Best answer:
Bladder cancers are typically slow growing and about 70% are single papillary lesions that are least likely to infiltrate. Bladder tumor's growth is variable: a month wait is a little too long, in my opinion, specially if symptomatic.
But "a spot" in the CT scan is not necessarily bladder cancer. There are other lesions that may show the same findings.
Bladder tumors are often "transional cell" carcinoma. Though they all looks the same under the microscope, my experience is that they may behave differently in two ways: They may follow a relatively "benign" course, meaning they keep on coming back in the bladder but apparently they don't invade the muscle wall and don't spread.
But there is that form that seems to grow fast, invade the deeper muscular layer of the bladder wall, tend to spread to other organs and ultimately kills the host.
When dealing with bladder tumors specially if symptomatic (bleeding), my personal feeling is that they should be attended as soom as possible.
The Cleveland Clinic Guide to Bladder Cancer (Cleveland Clinic Guides)
List Price: $ 15.95
Price: $ 38.03
Orignal From: Q&A: How bad is Bladder Cancer for an 84 year old woman?
No comments:
Post a Comment