Bladder cancer treatment

Depending on the stage and grade of the tumor, your urologist may recommend surveillance, intravesical (chemotherapy or immunotherapy treatments in the bladder) therapy, systemic chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or bladder removal, or a combination of these therapies.

For high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancers, an intravesical medication called BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) is the current standard of care therapy. This is a form of tuberculosis that initiates an immune response in the bladder, activating your immune system to kill cancer cells. In other situations, your urologist will recommend intravesical chemotherapy. When cancer has invaded the muscle, your doctor will likely recommend systemic chemotherapy followed by surgery to remove the bladder, or in some situations use chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy.