BEATING BLADDER CANCER

The key is early detection— and that’s up to you

- Lina Zeldovich

When Frances Dobrowolski noticed blood in her urine in August 2019, she didn’t think much of it. But then it happened again, and since she was scheduled to see her GP in two weeks, she mentioned that strange fact. Her doctor immediately referred her to a urologist, and it proved life-saving for the 78-year-old retiree and grandma. When her urologist threaded a tube with a tiny video camera into her urethra and bladder (a cystoscopy), she immediately saw the cancerous tumours. Frances, who was able to watch the procedure on a screen, also saw the tumours—they were growing from her bladder walls into the bladder. “It was a lot of cancer,” she says.

Frances also learned that smoking could have been the cause. “I quit 13 years ago, but I smoked two packs a day for 40 years,” she says. “I thought that if I got anything, it would be lung cancer, but I got bladder cancer instead.”

Frances had surgery to remove the tumours within days, but on the follow-up test a few weeks later, more cancer showed up on the screen, so she had a second surgery. She also started a regimen of chemotherapy drug infusions, once a week for six weeks, into her bladder to kill the remaining tumour cells.

When her next checkup revealed another tumour, Frances needed more infusions. “But because I saw my doctor as soon as I spotted symptoms, she says, and because the tumours aren’t growing into my muscles, my prognosis is good. I try to stay optimistic.”