Looking for information about cystoscopies and bladder tumors

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in July, 2011. In November of 2012 my doctor was examining an MRI of my prostate and saw a growth on my bladder which needed to be investigated. He said he was going to “scrape” off the growth and analyze it. He also said he was going to give me a dose of chemo so if the tumor was cancerous, the chemo would kill cancer missed by the scraping procedure. I came in on November 9, 2012 and the growth was “scraped” off.

I believe the procedure went well. However, when I was recovering after the procedure the attending nurse with the task of flushing out the chemo from a clear plastic tube inserted in my urinary tract (I believe that is correct) was not sure how to safely accomplish the task. I was talking to her and she waited until the doctor came around and told him of her concern. Another more experienced nurse eventually stopped over and provided a solution to the flushing problem that pleased the nurse who was hesitating to flush the chemo. My recollection of events places perhaps a 25 to 30 minute delay before the nurse actually started the chemo flushing action (she completed it in less than 5 minutes).

My doctor called me a few days after the procedure and said the tumor was malignant but it had not penetrated the bladder wall. His opinion was everything went well and he would schedule a bladder monitoring program for me.

I am now wondering if the chemo and/or the flushing delay could have caused the bladder damage. On January 2, I underwent a cystoscopy procedure to view the inside of my bladder (part of my bladder monitoring program).

The cystoscopy procedure was a breeze until my doctor looked at the monitor showing one section inside my bladder and said: “What is this? It looks like this area of your bladder was beaten up”.

I was also looking at the monitor and the fairly smooth lightly colored tunnel that the scope was illuminating turned into some dark areas. The dark areas looked to me like a few pieces old coagulated blood or bloody tissue. My doctor could not determine what caused this “beaten up” area. He took some tissue samples and pictures and the cystoscopy was over in about 10 minutes (a rather painless procedure).

During our discussion of what we had seen on the monitor, my doctor told me the samples and pictures would be analyzed and he would call me “in a couple of days”. The doctor was trying to figure out why only one area of my bladder appeared to be “beaten up”. He mentioned past situations in which the whole bladder looked beaten up but not just a single area. At this time I do not know the size of this one area.

It is now January 11 and I was told by my doctor’s assistant the analyzing process was not completed and it usually takes 7 to 10 days to get the results.

Is it possible the chemo placed in my body during the scraping procedure on November 9 created the beaten up area? I would like to know more about how the flushing procedure works and what parts of my body were exposed to the chemo (I will talk to my doctor about this).

Your thoughts, comments and opinions on this matter are welcome.

I am also wondering if chemo is normally used in these scraping procedures when removing tumors on or in the bladder.

Thanks for your help.

Sounds like you were not given cause for imediate concern. All of what you said, the scraping and the extended dose of chemo makes sense to a non medical person like myself. If it were me, i might consider going to a well known cancer center or a teaching hospital that specializes in urology to get a second opinion.

I would like to answer fuller later, but for now, as I am dealing with potential "bladder" cancer myself, and about to see a leading specialist on the subject in February.

You can cancer in the bladder that is prostate cancer that has spread to the bladder, or you can have true bladder cancer, or you can have both at the same time.

I have never heard of using chemo to scrape a bladder wall, that's a new one to me. But I am not a doctor. They usually go up with a scope, and manually scrape from the bladder wall, flush it out with saline or sometimes a liquid antibiotic, and then examine the scrapings for evidence of cancer.

Will write more later.

david