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- • In the near future, bladder monoclonal antibodies , alone and combined with flow cytometry, should help in
- screening , diagnosis, predicting the potential for metastases, and response to therapy.
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- Imaging
- • Intravenous pyelogram (IVP) .
- • Abdominal and pelvic CT scans and chest x-rays can help find metastases to lymph nodes , liver, lungs and
- surrounding bladder structures.
- • MRI and ultrasound images of the abdomen and rectal and urethral areas are not very useful.
- • Bone scans and bone x-rays are used before surgery only when there is bone pain.
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- Endoscopy and Biopsy
- • Cystoscopy is the direct visualization of the bladder by passing a small rigid or flexible tube through the
- urethra into the bladder. Biopsy of tumor masses can be done at the time of cystoscopy.
- • A new investigative staging procedure uses laparoscopic surgery in patients suspected of local tumor extension
- because CT and MRI scans are inaccurate in almost one-half of cases of high-grade (Grade 3) cancers that
- deeply invade bladder muscle or fat surrounding the bladder, or when cancer cells are found in the small blood
- and lymphatic vessels within the bladder muscle. With laparoscopic surgery, it is possible to remove selected
- lymph nodes and tissues to rule out the possibility that tumor extends outside the bladder. If tumor is found in
