Anyone use trimodal therapy: TURBT, chemotherapy, and radiation?

Hello @ljmings and welcome to Mayo Connect Bladder Cancer. It looks like this has not been a common choice with patients here on Connect, but more may chime in later. Perhaps because very specific qualifications are necessary to have the medical team even offer this treatment? This was not offered as an option for my husband 5 years ago but he had a partial cystectomy to remove the highly aggressive MI tumor confined to a diverticulum. Many recurrences later and he chose to have RC with neobladder to aim for a cure. All this was at Mayo Rochester. Has your medical team offered this alternative? The research numbers look good for a select group of patients who fit into the parameters. Saving the bladder seems to be a bigger priority now, likely due to better treatments as they become available.

Hi Sue, Thank you for your response. No, my medical team has not offered trimodality therapy, but I'm asking them about it and trying to learn as much as possible about it since in certain patients it has a success rate about equal to RC. So I am hoping I might hear from someone who has been treated with it.

@ljmings, studies have shown that trimodal therapy(TURBT, chemo and radations) has similar outcomes to radical cystectomy for some small cancers. However, there is a chance the cancer may come back in the bladder and cystectomy may still be required.

Have you had a chance to talk to your team about the trimodal option?