Diagnosis and Treatment of Bladder Cancer

QUESTION: My brother finally went to see his doctor months after he began to
see blood in his urine. He was diagnosed as having cancer, but claimed he
never thought it was serious because the bleeding used to stop by itself. You
would be doing your readers a real service to discuss this condition in your
column.
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ANSWER: Thank you for your concerned letter and your sound counsel. Cancer
can only be fought successfully when we all realize that treatment is most
effective when we can make an early diagnosis. Cancer of the bladder is a
common disease of the urinary tract, second only to cancer of the prostate.
As many as 40,000 Americans this year alone will face the diagnosis that your
brother now does. Most of them will be older, between 40 and 80, as the
disease is seldom seen before the age of 40. Three out of every four patients
will be men, possibly as the result of exposure to cancer producing chemicals
encountered in the work place. Some of the tobacco tars that pass through
the urine may also be a cause, for smoking has been shown to increase the
possibility of developing this cancer. However, there is no evidence to show
that the tendency to develop this disease is inherited. The most common
symptom is blood in the urine, that stains the urine red. It may come and go
as in the case of your brother, but usually there are other symptoms such as
frequent urination and pain and burning during urination. They serve as
important signs to indicate the need for a medical examination. The physician
will check the urine for blood, pus and infection, as well as looking for
cancer cells which may come from a bladder cancer. Kidney x-rays are
indicated as well as a cystoscopy, that permits the physician to look directly
into the bladder and search for tumors. Bladder tumors tend to develop in
groups and can recur after being removed, so this process may have to be
repeated often. If the lesions are superficial, they may be removed quite
easily, but cancers that have invaded the bladder wall will require a
combination of surgery and radiotherapy. Bladder cancer can also spread to
other parts of the body, underlining once again the need for early diagnosis
and treatment.