Words to know: Bladder cancer
- Urothelium
- The lining of the bladder, ureters, kidney pelvis, and urethra.
- Urothelial carcinoma
- Cancer that starts in the urothelium. It is the most common type of bladder cancer.
- Cystoscopy
- A test that uses a thin camera to look inside the bladder.
- TURBT
- Transurethral resection of bladder tumor. Surgery to remove a bladder tumor through the urethra.
- Intravesical
- Inside the bladder. Intravesical therapy is medicine put directly into the bladder.
- BCG
- Bacillus Calmette-Guerin. A weakened germ put into the bladder to help the immune system attack cancer.
- Carcinoma in situ (CIS)
- Flat, high-grade cancer cells that have not grown deeper than the lining.
- Muscle-invasive
- Cancer that has grown into the muscle layer of the bladder wall.
- Grade
- How abnormal the cancer cells look. High-grade cancers tend to grow faster.
- Radical cystectomy
- Surgery to remove the whole bladder, nearby lymph nodes, and sometimes nearby organs.
- Urinary diversion
- A new path for urine to leave the body after the bladder is removed.
- Urostomy
- A small opening on the belly where urine drains into a bag.
- Neobladder
- A new bladder made from a piece of bowel and connected to the urethra.
- Trimodality therapy
- Bladder-sparing treatment using TURBT, radiation, and chemotherapy together.
- Ureter
- The tube that carries urine from each kidney to the bladder.
- Urethra
- The tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body.
- Neoadjuvant therapy
- Treatment given before surgery to shrink the cancer.
- Adjuvant therapy
- Treatment given after surgery to lower the chance the cancer comes back.
- Perioperative therapy
- Treatment given both before and after surgery.
- Cisplatin
- A strong chemotherapy medicine. It can affect the kidneys, hearing, and nerves, so not everyone can get it.
- Immunotherapy
- Treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer.
- Antibody-drug conjugate
- A medicine that links an antibody to chemotherapy, to deliver it straight to cancer cells.
- Targeted therapy
- Medicine that blocks a specific gene change or protein in cancer cells.
- Metastatic
- Cancer that has spread from where it started to other parts of the body.
- Lynch syndrome
- An inherited condition that raises the risk of some cancers, including upper tract urothelial cancer.
Last updated: 2026-10-27. Medically reviewed by Veli Bakalov, MD, medical oncologist (October 2026). General education from Step by Step, the patient portal of HemeOncBuddy.