YOUR HEALTH
Bridge club's jearts are trump
DR. DONOHUE

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Please, please, please answer a question about organ donations. I belong to a bridge club with 12 members. Every time we meet, this discussion comes up, and there are 12 different opinions. Two members are in their 90s, three in their 80s and the rest of us are in our 60s and 70s -- not exactly spring chickens. Our state has a check-off on our driver's license for organ donations, and we all think this is great. But some of the gals think this is foolish because after age 60, no organs would be taken for transplant. Is there such a cutoff? -- Anon.

ANSWER: There is no age cutoff for organ donation. It's a common misconception to think that there is. The suitability of an organ for transplantation is based on other criteria. Indicate on your driver's licenses that you wish to be a donor. More importantly, tell this to all your family so that when the next of kin is asked about a donation, that person will respond according to your wishes.

Kudos to your bridge club for its altruism. The demand for organs far exceeds the supply. Would that everyone would follow your example.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My sweetheart has been told he has bladder cancer. Is it treatable? Is the prognosis dim? I'm stressed. -- P.D.

ANSWER: Your sweetheart must be stressed too.

Bladder cancer is treatable, often curable, and the prognosis isn't always dim. The fiveyear survival rate for bladder cancer patients is in the 80 percent range.

The prognosis depends on the size of the cancer, the number of cancers in the bladder, how early the cancer has been discovered, the depth it has penetrated into the bladder wall and whether it has spread to any distant body sites.

Bladder cancer has one disturbing quality: It has a high recurrence rate. For that reason, all bladder cancer patients are put on a schedule for follow-up cystoscopies -- scope examinations of the bladder.

Treatment depends on the same considerations used to determine prognosis. Most newly discovered bladder cancers are on the bladder surface and can be removed through the cystoscope. Often, after cystoscopic removal, BCG is instilled into the bladder. BCG is a vaccine used for TB prevention in many parts of the world. The vaccine stimulates bladder cells' immunity to cancer recurrence.

If the cancer is large, has penetrated into the bladder's muscular wall or has spread to sites outside the bladder, treatment might entail surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of all three.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com. 2006 North America Syndicate Inc. All Rights Reserved