Potential Bladder Cancer Medical Treatments

The medical treatments used to prevent recurrence of superficial bladder cancer consist of medicines that are instilled into the bladder—a strategy known as intravesical therapy. These medicines include chemotherapy agents such as Mitomycin C and Thiotepa (medications that stop malignant cells from dividing), as well as immunotherapy agents like BCG and Interferon (used to stimulate the body’s immune system and motivate its natural defense against cancer). Based on your likelihood of recurrence, your urologist may recommend one of these treatments.

Lifestyle Changes

Smoking cigarettes is the one greatest risk factor for bladder cancer, and over 50 percent of all bladder cancers are thought to be associated with tobacco smoking. Simply put, if you still smoke, you MUST quit. Studies have revealed that when tobacco smokers quit smoking, their bladder cancer chance drops in 2 to 4 years.

Occupational exposure to specific solvents or chemicals can also increase the risk of bladder cancer. If you suspect this is a factor for you, talk about the issue with the doctor.

Nutrition

Our familiarity with the connection between nutrition and bladder cancer is consistently enlarging. Current data supports a higher consumption of veggies and fruits and a reduction in animal fat. Also, an ever-increasing body of evidence implies that certain vitamins and nutritional supplements may substantially limit the threat of superficial bladder cancer recurrence for people in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.

Nutritional Supplementation

Early in the 1990s Donald Lamm, M.D., a leading bladder cancer researcher, performed a prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trial examining the effectiveness of high-dose nutritional supplementation in the prevention of bladder cancer recurrence. The participants in the trial were women and men with superficial bladder cancer, who were randomized into one of two groups. The treatment group was given BCG therapy and a daily multivitamin supplement, plus high amounts of vitamins A, B6, C, E, and zinc. The control group was given BCG therapy and a daily multivitamin only. The outcomes were definitely encouraging—the “high-dose” vitamin group had a cancer recurrence rate of just half that of the multivitamin group.

A recent clinical trial, displayed at the 2008 American Urological Association meeting, revealed that including this same mixture of high-dose nutrients (this time with additional vitamin D and folic acid) to BCG therapy was as good in reducing bladder cancer recurrence as adding interferon to BCG therapy.

To find out more, contact Metropolitan Urological Specialists.