When you or someone you love is diagnosed with bladder cancer, you need care from specialists who offer the latest, most promising treatments. Atrium Health Levine Cancer is here for you. We’re home to some of the nation’s top bladder cancer experts, and we’ve helped people through every type and stage of this disease. This means we’ve seen many patients like you – and that we can create a tailored treatment plan that gives you the best chance at a healthy future.
Expert Care for Every Type of Bladder Cancer
Whether you’re facing urothelial carcinoma or a less common form of bladder cancer, we bring a team of experts together to evaluate your disease and match you with the right treatments. Your care team will include:
- Urologic oncologists who focus on treating cancers in the urinary tract. Our doctors have the most advanced training and have seen hundreds of patients, with every type and stage of bladder cancer. This helps them anticipate which therapies will work best for you.
- Radiologists who use advanced imaging technologies, like MRI and CT scans, to diagnose disease and monitor how it changes. Our radiologists are specially trained to look at cancer, so they can give your doctors the most accurate information to guide treatment.
- Radiation oncologists who are experts in using radiation therapy to damage and destroy cancer cells.
- Medical oncologists who match patients with chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and other treatment options.
- Wound, ostomy and continence nurses who help you manage any bowel, bladder and incontinence conditions so you can lead a full and active life.
- Other experts including advanced care practitioners, genetic counselors and more. We build a customized team for each patient, so you can get the best possible care for every aspect of your condition.
Advanced Bladder Cancer Treatment
Whether you’re dealing with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, muscle-invasive bladder cancer or metastatic bladder cancer, we use the latest treatments to give you every opportunity for a healthy outcome. These treatments include:
- Chemotherapy drugs that target and kill cancer cells. Our medical oncologists deliver traditional chemotherapy and we’re also home to some of the nation’s top experts in intravesical chemotherapy – a targeted method that delivers chemotherapy directly to the bladder.
- Immunotherapy, which activates the immune system against cancer. In many patients, we use an innovative immunotherapy called Bacillus Calmette-Guerin to tackle bladder cancer with minimal side effects.
- Radiation therapy, which uses targeted beams of radiation to shrink and kill cancer. We often use radiation therapy after surgery to tackle any remaining cancer cells. We also use a combination of radiation and chemotherapy to eliminate cancer without surgery.
- Bladder preservation therapy, where we remove the tumor via a process called transurethral resection and follow up with chemotherapy and radiation to stop tumors from coming back.
- Partial bladder removal surgery, where we remove cancerous tissue without taking out the entire bladder.
- Full bladder removal surgery, where we remove the entire bladder and use innovative techniques to restore bladder function. We’re among a small handful of centers in the Southeast that perform this surgery, and we have years of experience using it to help patients overcome their cancer and get back to healthy, active lives.
Clinical Trials for Bladder Cancer
Clinical trials give patients access to the latest, most innovative therapies. Levine Cancer offers one of the Southeast’s most comprehensive clinical trials programs, featuring the most promising bladder cancer treatments – including novel chemotherapies and the first personalized therapies for advanced bladder cancer.
Explore our current clinical trials.
Support Services for All Your Needs
We understand that cancer is more than a medical condition – it can be a crisis that touches every part of your life. That’s why we offer support programs that aim to improve all aspects of your well-being:
- Individual and group counseling to help you cope with cancer and stay positive during treatment.
- Integrative medicine, including massage therapy, yoga and mindfulness instruction.
- Nutritional support, including cooking classes and tips from registered dieticians to help you stay strong during treatment.
- Patient navigators who help with everything from teaching patients about treatments, to finding lodging and transportation for your family members.
- A cancer wellness program, featuring a 12-week lifestyle training class that teaches patients about what kind of exercise and diet will keep them healthy after treatment.
- Survivorship services that help you manage the issues you’ll face after your treatment is over, so you can thrive for years to come.
For more information, or to make an appointment, please call 704-512-2317.