Chemotherapy for upper urinary tract urothelial cancer (UTUC)

You may have chemotherapy for upper urinary tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) to reduce risk of cancer coming back after surgery. This is called adjuvant chemotherapy. The most commonly used operation for UTUC is called a nephroureterectomy. 

Adjuvant chemotherapy starts within 3 months of your surgery. You usually have a combination of 2 drugs into a vein (intravenously).

Depending on how well your remaining kidney is working, you will have 1 of the following treatments:

• GemCis (gemcitabine and cisplatin)
• GemCarbo (gemcitabine and carboplatin).

You may have chemotherapy as the main treatment for cancer. This is if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body and it is not possible to remove it with surgery. This is called palliative chemotherapy. You usually have 1 of the following combinations of drugs intravenously:

• GemCis (gemcitabine and cisplatin)
• GemCarbo (gemcitabine and carboplatin)
• MVAC (methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin and cisplatin).

Rarely, a different type of chemotherapy is given directly into the ureter. This is called regional chemotherapy. A doctor may put a tube into the bladder and into the ureter. Or they may put a tube into your kidney (nephrostomy). The chemotherapy is then given through the tube.

You may have regional chemotherapy after laser treatment or after some types of surgery. Sometimes you have it if you cannot have surgery or you only have one kidney.

See also:

• UTUC