Urinary bladder cancer

Cancer of the urinary bladder is the fourth most common malignancy among men, and the eighth most frequent among women. An average of 260,000 new cases of urinary bladder cancer are diagnosed worldwide every year.

Approximately 90% of these cancers are of  "Transitional Cell Carcinoma" (TCC) type, originating in the epithelial cells (the internal lining) of the bladder wall.

When the tumor is limited to this layer, it is called "superficial" urinary bladder cancer. This superficial type of cancer tends to recur despite surgery and/or treatment; in most cases, the tumor tends to recur as superficial cancer.

A tumor that penetrates more deeply into the muscular layer of the urinary bladder, is called "invasive" urinary bladder cancer

    USA & Canada   Europe   Japan
  No. of new cases per year 49,500 109,021 10,902
    Data taken from an evaluation by the World Health Organization (WHO)
Symptoms of the disease

The symptoms of urinary bladder cancer, which are not necessarily evident, generally include:
  • Presence of blood in urine (hematuria); the passing of bloody urine is generally painless
  • Blood traces in urine laboratory tests
  • Urgency (inability to postpone urination) and frequency (urinating often)
  • Discomfort during urination
These symptoms may also appear in other non-malignant diseases such as:
urinary tract infection, urinary bladder stones, benign tumors, and others. Only a physician can interpret these meaning of these symptoms; therefore, the appearance of any one of these presentations requires medical attention.

 
 
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