Bladder cancer

How common is bladder cancer?

Bladder cancer is the most common cancer of the urinary tract and the second most common cancer of the genitourinary tract after prostate cancer, with three times as many men suffering compared to women.

Who are more likely to get bladder cancer?

It usually affects people over the age of 50, with the majority of patients being over 70. Risk factors for bladder cancer include smoking and occupational exposure, such as firefighters and workers in tobacco companies, tanneries, oil companies and paint factories.

Are there any symptoms indicative of bladder cancer?

Often bladder cancer causes haematuria or other urinary disturbances such as pain or frequent urination, even in the early stages, which is why it is usually discovered early. This does not of course mean that these symptoms always imply malignancy as benign urinary tract conditions such as infection or lithiasis also present the same picture. In more advanced stages of the disease the patient may complain of difficulty in urination due to obstruction, back pain, weakness and malaise, loss of appetite and weight loss and bone pain.

How is bladder cancer diagnosed?

The test of choice for bladder screening is cystoscopy, during which the inside of the bladder is examined and biopsies are taken from suspicious lesions.

After being diagnosed with bladder cancer, what happens next?

After the diagnosis of bladder cancer, staging is done with CT or MRI scan of the abdomen and CT scan of the chest for possible distant metastases.

What are the treatments available today?

75% of bladder carcinomas are superficial at diagnosis and can be removed during cystoscopy. This is usually followed by intravesical injections of chemotherapeutic agents. The recurrence rate after initial treatment ranges from 50-80% and 10-25% progress to invasive cancer.  In locally advanced invasive cancers, chemotherapy is usually given in combination with radiotherapy followed by surgical removal of the bladder (total cystectomy). In metastatic bladder cancers, the treatment options include mainly chemotherapy.