Entrust your health only to professionals! The “Karazanashvili Robotic Center” is a leading clinic in Georgia. Here, highly qualified specialists treat diseases using modern, cutting-edge technologies in accordance with global standards. For a long time, the clinic has been using an energy-efficient endoscopic method for treating bladder cancer — removing tumor formations in one block and detecting invisible cancerous tissues with standard methods using NBI mode — which represents the global standard in modern oncological urology.
What does the latest method of endoscopic treatment for bladder cancer include?
Fortunately, the majority of bladder cancers (80%) are non-invasive, meaning that tumor formations developed from epithelial cells grow as polyps inside the bladder cavity, without penetrating the muscular wall of the bladder. If the tumor has passed beyond the mucosa and the muscle layer, invading deeper into the bladder wall, it is considered invasive cancer. Invasive bladder cancer, due to the high risk of metastasis through lymphatic and blood vessels, is one of the deadliest and most uncontrollable diseases, rapidly leading to death in unfortunate cases.
According to modern statistics, bladder cancer is non-invasive in 80% of cases and can be eliminated. Accordingly, once detected (via ultrasound or tomography), it is recommended to remove the tumor using a bipolar TUR (transurethral resection) method at the first stage.
Bipolar TUR is the gold standard in modern oncological urology (you can read more about the method via the link). It not only has therapeutic value but also significant diagnostic importance, as a properly conducted TUR determines the further treatment and prognosis for the patient. It helps determine whether more extensive surgery, such as radical cystectomy (complete removal of the bladder), is necessary.
Bipolar TUR plays a crucial role in eliminating bladder cancer because one of the major challenges during surgery is bleeding. The bladder wall is highly vascularized, and thus tumors also tend to be richly supplied with blood. Controlling bleeding during surgery is essential since it becomes difficult to operate in blood-filled conditions, increasing the risk of bladder wall perforation, tissue damage, cancer cell spreading, and other complications. With bipolar TUR, thanks to advanced endoscopic technologies, the control of bleeding and reduction of complications become much more feasible.
Please note that the bipolar TUR procedure is performed using the equipment of the “Olympus” system (a world leader, from a Japanese company). In this clinic, highly qualified specialists with extensive practical experience uniquely master modern cutting-edge technologies!
In this clinic, bladder cancer is removed in a single block by endoscopic resection according to world standards, using the NBI mode! This is the key innovation of the method, ensuring maximum results and guaranteeing cancer elimination!
Two main innovations in endoscopic treatment of bladder cancer:
Single-block tumor removal
Single-block removal of bladder cancer means complete excision of the tumor without leaving any parts behind. With this method, the tumor is not excised layer by layer from the surface (similar to step-by-step pruning or digging out), but rather removed in one go from the root along with a portion of the muscle layer. This process is analogous to pulling out the roots of a plant. The inclusion of the muscle fibers during resection has enormous diagnostic significance—this is one of the principal advantages of bipolar TUR, which directly affects the patient’s prognosis. The reason is that the detection of cancer cells in the muscle layer is what determines the final evaluation of the tumor’s invasiveness. If histomorphological examination shows no cancer cells in the excised muscle tissue, it means that the bladder cancer is non-invasive, has not penetrated the bladder wall, and the patient will not require complete bladder removal. However, if histomorphological studies confirm cancer invasiveness (i.e., cancer cells are found in the muscle tissue), a more extensive surgical operation will be necessary.
The entire problem arises when histomorphological reports often do not include muscle fiber, leaving it unclear whether the tumor was fully excised or how deeply it had penetrated the bladder wall. This critical detail determines the patient’s fate and the next steps in their treatment. If the resected material does not contain the muscle layer, the question of cancer invasiveness remains unresolved, leaving the diagnosis uncertain, and future treatment may be misplanned. Therefore, a precisely performed and high-quality TUR procedure, i.e., the endoscopic (“bloodless”) removal of bladder cancer, is the foundation for proper treatment.
At the “Kharazanashvili Robotic Center,” endoscopic (“bloodless”) diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer are performed with maximum accuracy, at the highest level, in accordance with world standards, and using the latest technologies!
NBI Mode and Its Importance
Another problem in the treatment of bladder cancer is the existence of invisible cancerous lesions, their detection, and removal.
It is known that 95% of bladder tumors are urothelial cancers. This latter form practically covers the entire inner surface of the bladder, as the cancerous process is multifocal and characterized by the presence of multiple lesions scattered in the inner layer. The identification, complete detection, and thorough removal of these invisible lesions (which are not raised or visually altered on the surface) are the surgeon’s main challenge.
To address this problem, modern oncological surgery utilizes the advanced NBI mode technology. This is an optical improvement technique based on narrow-spectrum visualization. In normal lighting, seven light spectrums are used, but in endoscopic equipment for bipolar TUR, when switched to a special mode, the light source emits narrow-spectrum light, only blue (with a wavelength of 415 nm) and green (with a wavelength of 540 nm) waves. These are intensely absorbed by hemoglobin in erythrocytes (red blood cells), making it easier to identify blood vessels located in and beneath the inner layer through narrow-spectrum visualization. Areas with prominent vascularity, growths, and blood-filled zones are often cancerous lesions. Thus, with the modern NBI technology, it becomes easier for surgeons to quickly detect and remove invisible cancerous formations during the examination of the bladder walls.
The “Karazanashvili Robotic Center” is the first in the Caucasus to acquire the latest model of the “Olympus” system (the global leader, a Japanese company) and began treating bladder cancer using the endoscopic NBI method.
It is noteworthy that according to current guidelines, examining the bladder walls in NBI mode during TUR of the bladder is considered a mandatory manipulation. It has been successfully implemented in bladder cancer treatment in our clinic for the past three years. So trust your health only to professionals!
Receive treatment that meets global standards at the “Karazanashvili Robotic Center”
