Pathology Report

Hatfield 9 September 2014

This morning John and I went to Urology Associates to have his catheter and stent removed.  We were not expecting to get the pathology report until later in the week but it had arrived.  Dr. Tran removed the catheter and etc. while I sat in the waiting room but asked me to come in to hear what turned out to be reasonably bad news.

John's bladder cancer is staged as T2a, meaning that the cancer has infiltrated the muscle wall of the bladder.  This means that the bladder cannot be saved and the option of treatment with BCG* is not available to him.

Dr. Tran is affiliated with Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts and CDH has recently become an affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  Dr. Tran has suggested that John's further treatment be managed by a team at MGH and an initial meeting is being scheduled.  This meeting will be informative only and should take place within the next couple weeks.  Following that meeting we will also meet with an oncologist here in Northampton.

When a month has passed, allowing for recovery from the TURBT procedure John had last Wednesday, he will undergo several chemotherapy treatments, probably locally.  When that phase is complete, we will go to Boston for surgery to remove and reconstruct the bladder.  There are several options for bladder replacement and that is one of the things that we will discuss when we go to MGH.

Dr. Tran used these words  "It is big surgery but good surgery".  We need to plan for John to be in the hospital for about a week and the recovery is difficult but the outcomes are very good.

*BCG stands for Bacillus Calmette-Guerin.  It is used to treat bladder cancer in cases where the cancer has not infiltrated the muscle wall.

The good news?  Dr. Tran says that he can drink beer!