Symptoms, Causes and Diagnosis Of Bladder Cancer

Symptoms of bladder cancer - A bladder tumor can be both benign and malignant. Benign tumors are usually polyps. They occur mainly in young people. Bladder cancer, on the other hand, is a malignant tumor of the bladder. 95 percent of the bladder tumors are malignant. Most bladder tumors originate from the mucous membranes of the bladder's inner lining. These are also called transitional epithelial carcinomas or urothelial cell carcinomas.

Bladder Cancer Causes
There are a number of risk factors that increase the risk of bladder cancer. The main risk factor is smoking. Smokers have three to five times the chance of bladder cancer as non-smokers. In addition, controlled exposure to certain dyes, such as aniline, occurring in certain dyes, gives an increased chance. There is also a hereditary form of bladder cancer.



Symptoms Of Bladder Cancer
In the initial stage, bladder cancer almost no complaints. The most common symptom of bladder cancer is blood in the urine (hematuria). This blood loss can be very small. Therefore, it is not always possible to see the naked eye, but only under the microscope. It may also disappear for a long time. Such a warning signal can then easily be overlooked while the tumor develops further. Sometimes it hurts pain, or there are frequent bladder infections. If the bladder tumor grows or spreads, it may cause pain in the lower abdomen. Access from the kidney to the bladder can be blocked by the swelling at a high bladder tumor. Then urine accumulates in the kidneys (hydronephrosis), which can cause pain on the side.

Bladder Cancer Diagnosis
The bladder cancer diagnosis is based on complaints, urine and blood examination and supplementary research. These studies may include blistering (cystoscopy, see drawing), ultrasound, CT scan and an MRI. In order to make a final diagnosis, a piece of tissue (biopsy) is needed. This is obtained during a surgical procedure via the urethra tube and further examined microscopically. If the microscopic examination shows that the tumor has not only affected the mucous membrane but also the bladder wall muscle, there is a muscle-invasive tumor. In that case, further investigation is needed to check how far the tumor has expanded and whether there are sowing.

Bladder Cancer Treatments
The most commonly used treatments for bladder cancer are currently an operation (surgery), radiation therapy (radiotherapy) treatment with medicines (chemotherapy and immunotherapy) or a combination of these three. The choice of treatment depends on the extent of the tumor and the condition of the patient.

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References :

1. National Cancer Institute
2. Urologen voor u
3. American Cancer Society