Diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer

Abstract

Bladder cancer is the sixth most prevalent malignancy in the United States. The most common type of bladder cancer is urothelial (transitional cell) carcinoma, and cystoscopy remains the mainstay of diagnosis and surveillance. Fluorescence cystoscopy offers improvement in the detection of flat neoplastic lesions, such as carcinoma in situ. Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer is typically managed with transurethral resection and perioperative intravesical chemotherapy. Intravesical bacille Calmette-Guérin therapy is preferred over mitomycin for those at high risk of disease progression. For muscle-invasive disease, standard management is radical cystectomy. In these patients, neoadjuvant chemotherapy or postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy should be considered based on pathologic risks, such as positive lymph nodes or pathologic T stage. Multidrug systemic chemotherapy involving cisplatin is commonly used. No major organization recommends screening for bladder cancer.