West Virginia Resident is First American to Receive Dicycloplatin Chemotherapy: A WVU Urologic Oncology Case Report

Abstract

A 65-year-old Caucasian male presented with increasing hematuria over four months in 2016. Work up and scans revealed a 1.5 cm bladder mass, with a subsequent pathologic diagnosis of non-invasive high-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma. The patient declined BCG Immunotherapy and traveled to China soon after diagnosis and transurethral resection for Dicycloplatin (DCP) chemotherapy. DCP is approved by the Chinese FDA but only available at present in military hospitals. It is similar in molecular structure to platinum-based chemotherapy drugs used in the West, its side effects reported to be more tolerable. The patient received 8 weeks of IV DCP chemotherapy – he only experienced mild nausea, myralgia, a relative leukopenia and thrombocytopenia (though within normal limits) and, importantly, no alopecia – then returned to WV for quarterly surveillance. No recurrence of tumor has been observed to date; the most recent cystoscopy was on April 24, 2018, 22 months after diagnosis and resection.