Bladder Cancer: Your Chances for Recovery (Prognosis)

Prognosis is the word your healthcare team may use to describe your chances of recovering from cancer. Or it may mean your likely outcome from cancer and cancer treatment. A prognosis is a calculated guess. It’s a question many people have when they learn they have cancer.

The decision to ask about your prognosis is a personal one. It’s up to you to decide how much you want to know. Some people find it easier to cope and plan ahead when they know their prognosis and the statistics for how well a treatment might work. Other people find statistics confusing and frightening. Or they might think statistics are too general to be useful.

A healthcare provider who is most familiar with your health is in the best position to discuss your prognosis with you and explain what the statistics may mean in your case. At the same time, you should keep in mind that your prognosis can change. Cancer and cancer treatment outcomes are hard to predict. For instance, a favorable prognosis (which means you’re likely going to do well) can change if the cancer spreads to key organs or doesn’t respond to treatment. An unfavorable prognosis can change, too. This can happen if treatment shrinks and controls the cancer so it doesn’t grow or spread.

When figuring out your prognosis, your healthcare provider will consider all the things that could affect the cancer and its treatment. He or she will look at risk estimates about the exact type and stage of the cancer you have. These estimates are based on what results researchers have seen over many years in thousands of people with the same type and stage of cancer.

If your cancer is likely to respond well to treatment, your healthcare provider will say you have a favorable prognosis. This means you’re expected to live many years and may even be cured. If your cancer is likely to be hard to control, your prognosis may be less favorable. The cancer may shorten your life. It’s important to keep in mind that a prognosis states what’s likely or probable. It's not a prediction of what will definitely happen. No healthcare provider can be fully certain about an outcome.

Your prognosis depends mainly on:

• The type and location of the cancer

• The stage of the cancer

• Your overall health

• Your treatment decisions

Survival rates show how many people live for a certain length of time after being told they have cancer. The rates are grouped for people with certain types and stages of cancer. Many times, the numbers used refer to the 5-year or the 10-year survival rate. That’s how many people are living 5 or 10 years after diagnosis. The survival rate includes people at these different stages:

• People who are cancer-free or cured

• People who have few or no signs or symptoms of cancer

• People who are getting cancer treatment

If the cancer is just on the inner lining of the bladder (stage 0 or carcinoma in situ), the 5-year survival rate is about 98%.

If the cancer is growing just beyond the inner lining into the bladder wall, but is still just in the bladder (Stage I), the 5-year survival rate is about 88%.

Those with bladder cancer that's spread into the muscular wall of the bladder, but not outside the bladder, or to nearby lymph nodes or organs (Stage II) have a 5-year survival rate of about 63%.

If the cancer has spread through the bladder muscle into the layer of tissue around the bladder and maybe to nearby organs (such as the prostate gland in men or the vagina in women), but has not spread to lymph nodes or other organs (Stage III), the 5-year survival rate is about 46%.

When bladder cancer has moved beyond the bladder to the pelvic or abdominal wall, to lymph nodes, or to distant parts of the body (Stage IV), the 5-year survival rate is about 15%.

You can ask your healthcare provider about survival rates and what you might expect. But remember that statistics are based on large groups of people. They can't be used to say what will happen to you. No two people are exactly alike. Treatment and how well people respond to treatment vary.