bladder cancer
Sign in to saveAlso known as tumor of the bladder, urinary bladder cancer, malignant tumor of urinary bladder, malignant neoplasm of urinary bladder, malignant urinary bladder tumor, cancer of the urinary bladder, malignant tumor of the urinary bladder, malignant bladder tumor
urinary system cancer that results in malignant growth located in the urinary bladder
Key facts
- Specialty
- Oncology , urology
- Symptoms
- Blood in the urine
- Usual onset
- Age 65 or older
- Types
- Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), metastatic bladder cancer
- Risk factors
- Tobacco smoking , exposure to certain toxic chemicals, schistosomiasis infection
- Diagnostic method
- Cystoscopy with tissue biopsy
- Treatment
- Transurethral resection (TURBT), chemotherapy , BCG vaccine , immunotherapy , radical cystectomy , molecular-targeted therapies
- Prognosis
- Five-year survival rates range from 5% to 96% depending on the stage
- Frequency
- Around 500,000 each year
- Deaths
- Around 200,000 each year
via Wikipedia infobox
~36 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Bladder cancer is the abnormal growth of cells in the bladder. These cells can grow to form a tumor, which eventually spreads, damaging the bladder and other organs. Most people with bladder cancer are diagnosed after noticing blood in their urine. Those suspected of having bladder cancer typically have their bladder inspected by a thin medical camera, a procedure called cystoscopy. Suspected tumors are removed and examined to determine if they are cancerous. Based on how far the tumor has spread, the cancer case is assigned a stage 0 to 4; a higher stage indicates a more widespread and dangerous disease.
Those whose bladder tumors have not spread outside the bladder have the best prognoses. These tumors are typically surgically removed, and the person is treated with chemotherapy or one of several immune-stimulating therapies. Those whose tumors continue to grow, or whose tumors have penetrated the bladder muscle, often have their bladder surgically removed (radical cystectomy). People whose tumors have spread beyond the bladder have the worst prognoses; on average they survive a year from diagnosis. These people are treated with chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors, followed by enfortumab vedotin.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “bladder cancer” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.