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My dad has hormone resistant prostate cancer and also CIS cancer of the bladder. He already tried BCG last year and it didn't work. He doesn't want to try it again. The CT scan already showed a mass behind the bladder but they don't know if it's from the bladder or prostate. How long will it take his CIS to get out of the bladder without treatment (hasn't done anything for it in a year) and what is the usual length of life after it has left?
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Hi,
May 17, 2011 - 4:37pmI am sorry to hear about your father's diagnosis of both bladder and prostate cancer. As you and your father may be aware, carcinoma in situ of the bladder is defined as a noninvasive, flat, and high-grade cancerous lesion confined to the superficial lining of the bladder. Unlike most malignant tumors, CIS of the urinary bladder is a highly malignant and aggressive cancerous lesion.
Most patients with CIS of the bladder are treated with transurethral resection of the tumor followed by treatment with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). The addition of BCG can significantly reduce the rate of recurrence and may increase the overall survival rate. Actually, intravesical BCG therapy is the first line treatment for diffuse CIS, and it can produce > 70% complete response rate for more than one year. The five-year control rate after BCG treatment is more than 60%. In order for BCG to be effective, the tumor burden should be relatively small, and there must be direct contact between the medication and the tumor. It is so unfortunate that your father did not have success with this treatment.
Your father's oncologist is monitoring the progression or status of the cancer by ordering a CT scan. He or she is your best resource of getting answers to your question about the possibility of metastasis or spread of the cancer if no further treatment is administered. If you are asking about prognosis in the event of metastasis, again, this is something to talk about with the oncologist.
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