Collaborative Bladder Cancer Guidelines Released

Bladder cancer is uncommon, and is more often diagnosed at an advanced stage because it has symptoms that mimic other disorders.

This is especially true in women. They tend to have delayed diagnosis of muscle-invasive bladder cancer because its symptoms—blood in the urine, frequent urination, and pain or burning sensation during urination—are often mistaken for gynecological problems.

In August 2017, the American Urological Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society for Radiation Oncology, and the Society of Urologic Oncology formulated evidence-based guidelines and related materials for management of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

The guidelines include patient assessment, components of a staging evaluation for bladder cancer, and collaboration with a genitourinary pathologist for a pathology review when variant histology is present.

Treatment approaches include neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemotherapy, radical cystectomy, pelvic lymphadenectomy, and bladder preservation techniques. The guidelines also include patient surveillance and follow-up recommendations.

A 5-page summary of the recommendations is available at http://www.asco.org/sites/new-www.asco.org/files/content-files/practice-and-guidelines/documents/2017-bladder-cancer-summary-table.pdf.

Patient information is available on ASCO’s patient-oriented website, Cancer.Net.