Conservative Treatment of Invasive Bladder Cancer

Abstract

The concept of organ preserving therapies is a trend in modern oncology and now several tumor types are treated in this fashion. The use of trimodality therapy consisting of a as thorough a transurethral resection of the bladder tumor as is judged safely followed by concomitant chemo-radiation therapy is emerging as an attractive alternative for bladder preservation in selected patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Long-term data from multiple institutional and cooperative group studies have shown that this approach is safe, effective and provides patients with the opportunity of preserving an intact and functional bladder with survival rates similar to modern radical cystectomy rates.

Key words: bladder cancer; conservative treatment; radiation therapy; chemotherapy; radio-chemotherapy; trimodality therapy; bladder preservation.