Background 

Every year, thousands of people in the U.S. are diagnosed with advanced bladder cancer. The most common treatment is surgery to remove the bladder, sometimes with chemotherapy. While these treatments are lifesaving, they can be very hard on patients. Nutrition plays a big role in how well someone does during and after treatment, but many patients struggle with eating. Chemotherapy can change taste and smell, while surgery can cause problems like diarrhea or constipation that affect how food is absorbed. This study focuses on helping patients improve their nutrition before, during, and after treatment. 

What This Research Proposes to Address 

The research team plans to create a set of educational videos that explain how patients can improve their nutrition. These videos will be fun and movie-like, instead of looking like a classroom lecture, to keep viewers more engaged. After making the videos, the team will test them with fifteen patients who are either preparing for treatment or have already gone through it. Patients will watch the videos, take a survey about what they learned, and then join an interview to share feedback. 

Why This Research Is Important 

Good nutrition is essential for recovery and overall health during bladder cancer treatment. By creating videos that are easy to understand and enjoyable to watch, this project hopes to give patients the tools they need to take better care of themselves. If successful, the videos will be shared widely on the BCAN website and social media so many more patients and caregivers can benefit. This approach has the potential to improve outcomes and quality of life for people facing bladder cancer. 

Final Report Summary

This project focuses on helping bladder cancer patients improve their nutrition during treatment. Advanced bladder cancer is often treated with surgery to remove the bladder, sometimes with chemotherapy. These treatments are very hard on the body and can lead to serious complications, especially for patients who already have poor nutrition. Chemotherapy can change taste and smell, making food less appealing, while surgery can cause problems like diarrhea or constipation, which affect how the body absorbs nutrients. 

To address this, the research team created three video series designed to teach patients how to improve their nutrition. Unlike traditional classroom-style lessons, these videos were made in an engaging, movie-like style to keep patients and caregivers interested. Nutrition experts, patients, and caregivers helped review the scripts to make sure the content was both accurate and easy to understand. 

The team also designed a survey to measure how well people understand the nutrition advice in the videos and whether they find it easy to follow. Patients and caregivers are being interviewed to provide feedback on the videos and the survey questions. Once complete, the videos will be shared on the BCAN website to help more patients improve their health during treatment. 

None Reported as of August 2025

None Reported as of August 2025

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