Strange he wasn’t treated by the gold standard treatment for bladder cancer - as was my father when it was very experimental in about 1995 when he was in his early 80’s, when bladder cancer was 95% fatal.
Non-invasive, not harmful, they inject live tuberculosis germs in the bladder through the urethra regularly for a year or so. Then occasionally afterwards, then monitor.
My father’s bladder cancer was cured permanently and he went on with no re-occurances to live to 93 and die in his sleep of congestive heart failure.
I’ve known others who have had the same treatment more recently, with the same success. This treatment is said to be 90% or more successful.
Must have been something else going on here......
But then what do I know - I’m an engineer, not a medical person.......
Medicine doesnt care about treating you with the best solution
They have a middleman called insurance and another called hospital policy that comes up with a solution, not you
Engineering does
I am an engineer as well
You might can call BCG the "gold standard" for bladder cancer if the stage is 0. However, for stages above that, it certainly isn't. 25% of bladder cancers have already broken out of the bladder wall and become invasive by the time they're diagnosed and BCG wouldn't be able to cure that. And larger tumors can require more aggressive treatment as well.
For instance, although my husband's bladder cancer was still contained within the bladder (they hoped, hard to tell prior to surgery) complete removal of the bladder and prostate were recommended to save his life. That was 19 years ago this month. How aggressive the cancer is was also a consideration as they are not all alike.
We were told that it'd be back within 2 years if we didn't go the removal route. Thankfully we did and it was successful.
Glad your Dad didn't have to endure that. It's no picnic.