neoncyclist792 said:Could someone help me make sense of this pathology report? It’s unrelated to the previous thread; this is about my dad.
Papillary urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder
Histological type: urothelial carcinoma
Histological grade: high grade
Tumor structure: papillary formations
Microscopic extension: tumor infiltrating the lamina propria
Muscle tissue: no tumor present
Organized urothelium
Transurethral resection performed, one 20mm lesion and one small lesion
Follow-up surgery scheduled for July 16th
What should we expect?
My mother-in-law dealt with this exact kind of cancer. When she first got sick, we hadn't even met yet, so I only know the details from later conversations. She had surgery and went through some BCG therapy, which really took a toll on her heart and caused quite a few side effects, though it kept the primary disease under control for a while. About eight years later—by then I was already part of the family—the disease recurred. At first, they just operated on the tumor and removed a kidney, but then it kept coming back every few months. Eventually, in 2015, she ended up having a massive surgery where they removed her bladder, uterus, ovaries, spleen... honestly, I'm not sure if anything else was taken. Her abdominal cavity was left almost empty. She wasn't receiving any active treatment after that, just regular check-ups. She did have a permanent urostomy, which she managed quite well, but she struggled with frequent urinary tract infections (or whatever was left of the system—I'm not a doctor, so I don't know all the specifics). Over a year ago, she started feeling really unwell and lost her appetite. My husband finally managed to convince her to go to the ER, where they found fluid in her lungs and suggested a bronchoscopy. She refused, though. She figured it was metastases and decided she didn't want more treatment; she just wanted to pass away at home. She was over 80 and worked in medicine, so she knew exactly what was happening. Eventually, we started suspecting brain metastases too because of some strange behavior, though nothing was officially proven since she stopped going for exams and only treated symptoms. She slept more and more until she fell into a coma in early August and passed away three days later.
From what I gathered, this specific cancer is incredibly aggressive and tends to come back frequently. They keep operating as long as there is something left to remove, but once it metastasizes, there isn't much left to do.
Still, after that initial diagnosis, she lived for 13 years. For about five or six of those, she was doing pretty well, aside from the issues caused by the treatments.
