Bladder cancer originates from the lining of urinary bladder which is an organ in your pelvic area that stores urine
Signs and symptoms
Clinical manifestations of bladder cancer are as follows:
- Painless gross hematuria which means visible blood in urine – Approximately 80-90% of patients; classic presentation. It is important that even a single episode of hematuria (blood in urine) is not ignored.
- Patient may present with Irritative lower urinary tract symptoms such as increased frequency, urgency and mild pain while passing urine. This can happen in 20-30% of patients.
- Sometimes patient may present with advanced disease with symptoms related to involved distant organ. For example: spread in bones may present as pelvic or bony pain, lung involvement due to spread may present as cough.
Risk factors
Factors that may increase your risk of bladder cancer include:
- Smoking
- Increasing age : rarely found in people younger than 40.
- Men are more likely to develop bladder cancer than women are.
- Exposure to certain chemicals especially in rubber and dye industry.
- Chronic inflammation. May cause squamous cell carcinoma
- Personal or family history of cancer.
How is Urinary Bladder Cancer diagnosed?
Tests and procedures used to diagnose bladder cancer may include:
- Cystoscopy.
- Biopsy/TURBT
- Urine cytology to look for malignant cells
- Imaging tests. Ultrasound/ Contrast enhanced CT scan
Treatment OVERVIEW
The treatment, prognosis and follow up of urinary bladder cancer depends on stage (depth of the wall involved by cancer), grade of the disease(high grade vs low grade) and present of distant metastasis. Most of bladder cancers are diagnosed at early stage and thus are highly treatable. However even the early stage bladder cancers have high tendency to recur. Hence regular follow up is a must in a patient diagnosed with bladder cancer.
- Superficial (Non muscle invasive) and low grade tumors may be treated with endoscopic surgery through the normal urinary passage which is called TURBT (transurethral resection of bladder tumor).
- Muscle invasive bladder cancer/ Recurrent high grade non invasive cancers require removal of complete bladder surgically (Radical cystectomy) once muscle invasion is confirmed on TURBT. Radical cystectomy further involves creation of alternate passage for urine(Urinary diversion).
- Patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer who are not fit or not willing for Surgery can be treated with Radiation therapy in conjunction with Chemotherapy.
- Bladder Cancer which has spread to other organs of the body however is seldom curable and an effort is made to control the disease with Chemotherapy