Chemotherapy in advanced urinary bladder cancer

In our investigation of different chemotherapy protocols, the best results in recent years were obtained with a combination of cisplatinum and doxorubicin in patients with recurrent urinary bladder cancer. This applied both to the local bladder tumor and the metastases. With respect to the cases of advanced localized bladder cancer, refined surgery or more developed equipment in radiotherapy, even developing new particles or rays, presumably will give only marginal effects on eradication of the tumor. A new approach may be to give a combined therapy of CDDP and doxorubicin before surgery and/or radiotherapy; a pilot study is going on in Stockholm. Experience so far has shown that CDDP together with radiotherapy or after preoperative irradiation followed by cystectomy is not tolerable to the patients. Between 40 and 50 per cent of them failed to fulfill the treatment.