Recently in Bladder Cancer Category

A set of molecular biomarkers might better predict the recurrence of bladder cancer than conventional prognostic features such as the stage or grade of the malignancy at the time it is discovered, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

Once a patient undergoes surgery for the removal of their bladder and lymph nodes -- the standard treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer -- researchers say a routine tissue analysis could easily test for the presence of mutated proteins, or biomarkers, that they found to help ascertain the chances that the cancer will return.

Drinking, or even immersing yourself in, chlorinated water may increase your risk of bladder cancer, says a new study.

The new study is the first to suggest that chlorine is harmful to humans when ingested or absorbed through the skin, according to study leader Cristina M. Villanueva of the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona and her colleagues.

Chlorine itself is not harmful, but its byproducts increase the risk of cancer. Trihalomethanes are the most prevalent by-product, and they can be absorbed into the body through the skin or by inhalation. When THM is absorbed through the skin or into the lungs, they hold stronger carcinogenic properties because they aren’t detoxified through the liver, Villanueva and her team found in their research.

Gonorrhea, a common sexually transmitted infection, can double the risk of bladder cancer in men, researchers said on Tuesday.

Earlier studies had already suggested a link and scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts who monitored the health of 51,529 American men found 286 cases of bladder cancer in men who had had the infection.

"We observed a two-fold increase in bladder cancer risk among men with a history of Gonorrhea," said Dr Dominique Michaud, the lead author of the research reported in the British Journal of Cancer.

The link was stronger for invasive and advanced bladder cancer, which is more serious and difficult to treat, and among smokers.

A child is more likely to develop bladder cancer later in life if he/she is exposed to second-hand smoke or smokes, say European researchers. A child who starts smoking before the age of 15 is three times as likely to suffer from bladder cancer later in life than a child who doesn't smoke.

You can read about this study in the International Journal of Cancer.

The researchers found that adults who do not smoke, but are exposed to someone else's smoke at home, have no raised risk of bladder cancer. Children, on the other hand, who are exposed to second hand smoke in the home have a 40% higher risk, compared to children who are not exposed to passive smoking in the home.

In the UK bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer among men.

by Kristina Collins, The Cancer Blog

At home screening may reduce deaths from bladder cancer in men over fifty years of age. Bladder cancer is diagnosed in as many as 60,000 individuals annually in the United States and is much more common in the elderly.

Cancer of the bladder has a high cure rate if detected early enough, however, the cure rate gets much lower if the cancer spreads and metastasizes to other parts of the body. One way to diagnose the disease is to detect microscopic amounts of blood in the urine.