Of course! My oncologist and surgeon agreed that I should have chemo prior to the surgery. I think that was to see if the chemo could shrink the tumor and hopefully also damage any other cancer cells in lymph nodes or anywhere else they couldn't see. I had chemo for three months (July-Sept), took a month off for my body to recover some from it (Oct) and get another CT scan and then had the RC with a neobladder "installed" on 11/7. They could tell from the tissue that was removed that the chemo had worked. There was damage to that tissue.

I'm personally glad that I did it before the surgery. The surgery recovery is pretty long so I was glad I already had the chemo behind me and could just concentrate on healing instead of also having to look towards chemo. The chemo I had was cisplatin and gemcitabine. It wasn't easy, but I just tried to concentrate on getting through the chemo first and then deal with the surgery later. One day at a time.

Is your oncologist suggesting chemo first?