Patient and Caregiver Guide to Bladder Cancer

People with bladder cancer should seek out a urologist or healthcare facility that offers Blue Light Cystoscopy (BLC®), a procedure that uses both white and blue light for the examination inside the bladder. Visibility of bladder tumors is a critical factor in their removal in the operating room and in follow-up care in the office. The use of an FDA-approved optical imaging agent called Cysview® (hexaminolevulinate HCl) makes non-muscle invasive bladder cancer tumors glow pink in the blue light.

Important Risk & Safety Information

Cysview^® (hexaminolevulinate HCl) is an optical imaging agent used to detect non-muscle invasive bladder cancer in patients suspected or known to have lesion(s) on the basis of a prior cystoscopy, or in patients undergoing surveillance cystoscopy for bladder cancer. Cysview is not a replacement for random bladder biopsies or other procedures used in the detection of bladder cancer. 

Anaphylactoid shock, hypersensitivity reactions, bladder pain, bladder inflammation (cystitis), and abnormal urine tests have been reported after administration of Cysview. The most common adverse reactions seen in clinical trials were bladder spasm, trouble urinating, discomfort when urinating, frequent urination, blood in the urine, and bladder pain.

Cysview should not be used in patients with large amounts of blood in their urine, any known allergy to Cysview or any derivative of aminolevulinic acid, or porphyria, a condition that means you already have high levels of porphyrins in your body. No specific drug interaction studies have been performed.