Urothelial bladder tumours are chemosensitive. Chemotherapy is indicated in the case of metastatic bladder cancer. The M-VAC protocol remains the reference treatment. The efficacy of this protocol is estimated to be about 18% in terms of complete responses and 20% of these responding patients achieve long-term survival. New combinations, comprising drugs such as ifosfamide, gallium nitrate, paclitaxel or gemcitabine, appear to be promising. Neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy cannot be considered to be standard treatment at the present time.