Transurethral resection in regionally advanced bladder cancer.

Various treatments have proved useful for disease control in some patients with regionally advanced bladder cancer. Transurethral resection may cure some patients with invasive disease, but identifying patients with such potential early in their course is difficult. A restaging transurethral resection helps indicate whether conservative management is feasible and, if not, which operation is appropriate. In some patients, transurethral resection may enhance the response to chemotherapy. Research is needed to identify those tumor characteristics associated with good results of conservative management of regionally advanced bladder cancer.