What Happens With Systemic Chemotherapy for Bladder Cancer

For systemic chemotherapy, your doctor or nurse injects anticancer drugs into your vein. The benefit of systemic treatment is that the drugs can attack cancer cells throughout your body, not just in your bladder. It’s used to treat cancers that may have spread.

A combination of chemotherapy drugs is most often used to treat bladder cancer. These may include Platinol (cisplatin) and Fluorouracil (5-fluorouracil).

You will get chemotherapy is given in cycles. You’ll get chemotherapy treatment for a certain length of time. And then you’ll have a rest period. Then treatment will begin again. Each treatment and rest period makes up one cycle.

Most people have chemotherapy as an outpatient. You may have it at a local hospital, your doctor’s office, or at home. Or you may go to a special chemotherapy-only clinic.