Resolute Baptist Hospital in New Braunfels uses new technology to help better detect bladder cancer

Urologists at Resolute Baptist Hospital received the green light in May to begin using a new technology that will help detect bladder cancer earlier.

Why it matters

Dr. Ryan Donahue, a urologist at Resolute Baptist Hospital in New Braunfels, said bladder cancer is incredibly common and is the fifth most common solid organ tumor in the population. Although some tumors are benign, the vast majority of them are malignant and cancerous. Doctors will place those patients under general anesthesia and remove the cancerous tumors by using a camera in the urethra.

“These tumors are highly recurrent, meaning that when we removed them, we removed all the tissue that we could see and say we look back in the bladder in three months or six months, now there’s another tumor maybe in the same region or maybe in a different region,” Donahue said.

Doctors have wondered why another tumor presents close to where another tumor was removed, Donahue said.

“The thought is that there’s microscopic disease that is undetectable by the human eye,” he said. “And so these tumors can be easy to overlook.”

Blue Light Cystoscopy technology uses a specialized blue light that makes cancerous or abnormal cells glow bright pink, which will allow doctors to detect tumors 10%-40% more than they previously could, Donahue said.

“Resolute’s actually the only hospital that I’m aware of in the region that offers it,” he said.

Notable quote

Donahue said the better detection rates will allow doctors to be better at removing the tumors and avoid removing the bladder in the future.

“I’m incredibly excited to be able to offer this in New Braunfels and our community, because I think it’s really [going to] make a huge impact for bladder cancer patients.”