Second recurrence of bladder cancer does not imply metastasis, but refers to the reoccurrence of cancer that has been treated.
Bladder cancer is easy to recur, and the recurrence rate of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer can be as high as 60%. A small number of patients can progress to muscle invasive bladder cancer after recurrence, which means that the tumor infiltrates deeper into the bladder wall to reach the muscle layer, or even breaks through the wall of the bladder and invades the surrounding organs or tissues. Metastasis refers to the tumor invading other tissues or organs through direct infiltration, blood pathway or lymphatic pathway.
Even after treatment, there is still a risk of recurrence or progression of bladder cancer, so for this type of patients, bladder perfusion chemotherapy and immunotherapy are needed after surgery. Commonly used chemotherapeutic agents are epirubicin, mitomycin and gemcitabine. Commonly used immunotherapeutic agents are BCG vaccine and so on. The above drugs need to be used under the guidance of physicians, individualized medication.