Role of Radiation Treatment for Bladder Cancers

Radiation for bladder cancers may be used

• alone
• in combination with chemotherapy as an alternative to surgery for management of primary invasive tumour
• for palliation of local symptoms or symptoms of metastatic disease

Radiotherapy should be considered in the context of a multi-disciplinary assessment by medical, surgical and radiation oncologists.

Indications

Curative: Muscle-invasive primary bladder cancer, locally recurrent bladder cancer after conservative or radical surgical management.

Palliative: Symptomatic local or metastatic disease.

Emergency/Urgent: Spinal cord compression, uncontrolled hematuria, intracranial metastases, uncontrolled bone/nerve-root pain.

Benefits

Radical chemo-radiotherapy offers an effective organ-sparing alternative to surgery in the operative candidate, and the opportunity to achieve local control in the non-surgical candidate. It provides effective palliation of local symptoms related to advanced primary or locally recurrent disease, or metastatic disease not amenable to chemotherapy.

How to Obtain a Consultation

Patients may be referred to one of the radiation oncologists in the Site Group

• through the departmental referral process
• by contacting Elena Gessas
  • Tel: (416) 946-2121
  • Fax: (416) 946-4442
• by contacting one of the radiation oncologists directly

This page was last updated June 23rd, 2010 at 10:05am.