Treatment for muscle invasive bladder cancer

The main treatments for muscle invasive bladder cancer are surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Surgery is one of the main treatments. The surgeon usually removes all your bladder and makes a new way for you to pass urine.

Radiotherapy uses high energy x-rays to kill cancer cells. You might have it as your main treatment for bladder cancer.

For muscle invasive bladder cancer you have the drugs into a vein (intravenously). You might have chemotherapy before surgery or radiotherapy. This is called neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Or you might have it after surgery, this is called adjuvant chemotherapy.

Chemoradiotherapy means having chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment together. You might have this as one of your main treatments.

There are different immunotherapy drugs for muscle invasive bladder cancer. These include nivolumab, avelumab and atezolizumab.

After treatment for muscle invasive bladder cancer, you have regular check ups. This is called follow up.