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do doctors know if you have bladder cancer after cystoscopy

wioletaj
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Hello everyone,

I have had my cystoscopy done about a month ago, after an ultrasound showed some growth on my bladder. I am having TURBT done in a week because the doctors suspect in may be cancer. From reading the forum I've realised that most people already know if it's cancer or not after their cystoscopy, whereas all i'm being told is that it could be but they are not sure until they have the biopsy results. My symptoms are cloudy urine, urine odour and pelvic pain but no blood in my urine. It would be useful to hear others experience with this.

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    Hi wioletaj.  Welcome to the forum.

    I am not a doctor and I have no medical qualifications.

    When I had my cystoscopy after passing blood, the doctor immediately recognised the cancer.  It looked just like one of the example images you find with a bit of web searching.  I think most people who have bladder cancer are in this position.

    However, when it comes to any type of cancer, there are always some cases where the gross physical appearance of a growth/lump can't be immediately recognised, and in that case a sample of cells has to be taken and viewed under a microscope, so that an experienced pathologist can make a determination.

    I can understand how frustrating this must be for you to be in this situation.  However, the safest option is to perform the TURBT and remove whatever it is.  Whether you'll need follow up treatment depends on what the pathologist finds. Let's hope that it turns out to be benign.

     

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