[aimeth]

Hi my husband, 53 yrs old, was first diagnosed with bladder cancer back in 03. His bladder was removed and replaced with a neobladder. Was considered in remission till this year. He has a highly aggressive tumor outside his neobladder invasive into soft tissue. We have been treating with chemo, Gemzar and Cisplatin, and have completed 4 cycles. It responded some but not as much as we wanted. In fact his oncologist thinks is growing again, but not sure. We just began treating again but with MVAC. He is in a lot of pain and some bleeding and obvious chemo complications and side effects. What kind of prognosis can we expect? And when they say life expectancy can we assume is from the original diagnosis back in 03 or from this year? Thank you!

[clr3]

Not an expert, but my understanding is the time line starts at stage IV diagnosis, we were told 3 years. My dad (other post) has bladder cancer and he took Cisplatin + Gemzar for 3 years with the help of anti-nausea meds I thought he tolerated the treatment very well and in the beginning his tumors seems to shrink dramatically and he was given several months longs breaks between cycles. But after 3 years on that chemo, they don't appear to be responding anymore, new pains are appearing arthritis and his pain meds have increased dosage, the pain meds do create a dependency and tolerance over time regardless more is needed to provide relief. He was switched to Taxodere plus needs to take steroids and continue the pain meds he was also enrolled in a blind study. MVAC was never used for him, my understanding is the Cisplatin+Gemzer is equivalant in effectiveness with less severe side-effects. I think everyone has a different reaction - amazingly despite all his chemo he's only had some hairloss. I hope the best for your husband, you and your family.