Instead, it can become a chronic condition. Regular treatment will be necessary to control the cancer. In the early stages, common symptoms include :. Blood in the urine: This is common. It can range from being detectable through a microscope to altering the color of the urine completely.
Urination habits: A person may need to urinate more often than usual. The symptoms of bladder cancer can resemble those of a bladder infection.
It is important to seek medical advice if symptoms persist. The cause of bladder cancer remains unknown , but genetic mutations may play a role. Smoking tobacco and having exposure to chemicals may cause mutations that lead to bladder cancer.
However, these may affect people in different ways. Scientists do not consider genetics to be a major cause of bladder cancer. They do suggest, however, that these factors might make a person more susceptible to the effects of tobacco and certain industrial chemicals. Scientists have identified certain risk factors for bladder cancer, of which smoking is the most important.
People who smoke are at least three times more likely to develop bladder cancer than people who do not smoke. The risk of bladder cancer also increases with age. The average age of diagnosis is Other risk factors may include :.
Some medications and dietary supplements, such as pioglitazone Actos and aristolochic acid, may also increase the risk. According to the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, a toxin in these plants may have links to kidney problems and cancer in the long term. A doctor will ask about symptoms and medical history. They will also conduct a physical examination. Tests, such as the following , can help confirm a diagnosis and staging of bladder cancer.
A doctor can examine the inside of the urethra and bladder by using a cystoscope. A cystoscope is a narrow tube that contains a camera and lighting system. If the person needs a general anesthetic, the procedure will instead take place in the hospital.
The following imaging tests can help confirm a diagnosis and reveal if the cancer has spread within the body:. During a cystoscopy, a surgeon can retrieve samples for a bladder biopsy. If cancer is present, a biopsy can help a doctor establish its invasiveness. A doctor can also use a thin, hollow needle to collect a biopsy, often using a CT scan or ultrasound as guidance.
Staging describes how far the cancer has spread and determines which treatment is the most suitable option. Stage 0: Cancer cells occur on the outer surface of the inner lining of the bladder. At this stage, bladder cancer would be a noninvasive papillary carcinoma that has developed toward the hollow part of the bladder or an invasive papilloma that has not moved beyond the inner lining of the womb.
Stage I: Cancer occurs within the inner lining of the bladder but has not spread to the lamina propria or muscular wall. This content does not have an English version.
This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Female urinary system Open pop-up dialog box Close. Female urinary system Your urinary system — which includes your kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra — removes waste from your body through urine. Male urinary system Open pop-up dialog box Close. Male urinary system Your urinary system — which includes your kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra — removes waste from your body through urine.
Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Bladder cancer Open pop-up dialog box Close. Bladder cancer Bladder cancer develops when cells in the bladder begin to grow abnormally, forming a tumor in the bladder. Share on: Facebook Twitter.
Show references AskMayoExpert. Bladder cancer adult. Mayo Clinic; Bladder cancer. National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Accessed April 1, Partin AW, et al. Campbell-Walsh-Wein Urology. Elsevier; Your urologist may perform a full medical history and physical exam. Further tests may be needed to form a diagnosis.
If you are diagnosed with bladder cancer, you may need more tests. These tests will find out the stage of your disease.
It will also give your doctor an idea of what treatment is best for you. If any of these tests suggest you have bladder cancer, the next step is to do a transurethral resection of a bladder tumor TURBT , as described below. You will likely be put to sleep for this procedure. The scope the doctor uses when you are put to sleep to perform a TURBT is not flexible like the one used in the office, but rigid.
This means it is straight and does not bend. This cystoscope is bigger, has a light at the end, and surgical tools can pass through it. The tissue sample will be sent to a lab where they will find out vital information about your cancer.
They will also see whether the cancer has spread. This will help with choosing the right treatment. Grade and stage are two vital ways to measure and describe how cancer develops.
A tumor grade tells how aggressive the cancer cells are. A tumor stage tells how much the cancer has spread. Grading is one of the ways to know if the cancer will return. Tumors can be low or high grade. High-grade tumor cells are very abnormal, poorly organized and tend to be more serious. They are the most aggressive and more likely to grow into the bladder muscle.
The tumor stage tells how much of the bladder tissue has cancer. Doctors can tell the stage of bladder cancer by taking a small sample of the tumor. A pathologist in a lab studies the sample under a microscope and decides the stage of the cancer. Additional tests such as imaging studies can also help with determining stage.
Muscle invasive bladder cancer is a serious and more advanced stage of bladder cancer. For patients with MIBC, the overall prognosis how the disease may progress is dependent on stage and treatment.
If bladder cancer does come back, it most often will happen within the first two years after bladder surgery. Knowing you have cancer can be scary. Still, your doctor and health care team are there to help you. Your health care team will discuss what you must know about all the treatment choices. They will tell you about possible risks and the side effects of treatment on your quality of life. Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. For MIBC, chemotherapy will most likely be given before radical total cystectomy.
Bladder removal with chemotherapy raises survival rates for bladder cancer patients. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy given before cystectomy should include the drug cisplatin.
Adjuvant chemotherapy means the drug is given after surgery. Your doctor may offer this treatment if it is right for you. Chemotherapy drugs are mostly given by vein intravenous. The drugs enter the bloodstream and travel throughout your body. Most often, doctors offer chemotherapy before bladder removal for best survival rates. But not all people are able to have chemotherapy.
You may not get chemotherapy if you have poor kidney function, hearing loss, heart problems or other health issues. Some patients may choose not to get chemotherapy before surgery. But some may still need to have it after surgery based on the tumor stage. You will likely have your bladder surgery about weeks after you have finished chemotherapy. You may have your chemotherapy treatment in an outpatient part of the hospital, at the doctor's office or at home.
Rarely, you will need to stay overnight in the hospital. Chemotherapy is sometimes given in cycles. Each cycle often has a treatment period followed by a rest period. There are side effects to chemotherapy. The side effects depend on which drugs are given and how much is given. Chemotherapy kills fast-growing cancer cells, but the drugs can also harm normal cells, such as:. FFor MIBC, because the cancer has grown into the muscle, in most cases the whole bladder is removed in some cases only part of the bladder is removed.
As mentioned, before your bladder is removed, you will most likely be given neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Bladder cancer can spread to the lymph nodes. When the bladder is removed, a pelvic lymph node dissection is also done to remove the fatty tissue surrounding the pelvic blood vessels. A pelvic lymph node dissection is thought of as standard of care. Standard of care means that this is the usual treatment. Your bladder can be removed by an open or a robotic approach.
In the open approach, the doctor makes one larger cut in the middle of the belly to remove the bladder. Open surgery may have a shorter operative time. In a "robotic" procedure, a few smaller cuts are made in the belly. Your surgeon puts small tools through the openings to reach the bladder. Often people have less pain and less blood loss with robotic surgery.
For more information on bladder removal, view our Bladder Removal Surgery video. For MIBC, the most common type of surgery is radical cystectomy. The surgeon removes the whole bladder, nearby lymph nodes and part of the urethra. In men, the surgeon also may remove the prostate. In females, the surgeon may remove the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and vaginal wall. Other nearby tissues may also be removed.
When the whole bladder is removed, the surgeon makes another way for urine to be collected from the kidneys and stored before passing from your body. This is called urinary diversion.
Your doctor will talk over the risks of cystectomy and the different methods of urinary diversion. For MIBC, partial cystectomy is a less likely choice as the cancer may be more advanced. Partial cystectomy may be thought about in select cases of bladder cancer in which the tumor is found in a specific part of the bladder and does not involve more than one spot in the bladder.
Ask your surgeon whether you are a candidate for this type of surgery. When your bladder is removed or partly removed, your urine will be stored and made to leave your body by a different route urinary diversion.
If you have a radical cystectomy, you will need to know about urinary diversion options. Because the surgeon uses tissue from your intestines for bladder reconstruction, you must have enough bowel tissue for a urinary diversion. Before surgery, your surgeon will go over the procedure and the changes you will need to make.
Talk with your doctor about your choices for a urinary diversion. Having a urinary diversion will greatly impact your quality of life.
For more information on urinary diversion, visit our Urinary Diversion article or view our Urinary Diversion video. Chemotherapy with radiation may be used for bladder preservation keeping the bladder or parts of it. Bladder preservation may be suggested for select patients where radical cystectomy is not an option or is undesired.
The right health circumstances must be present for bladder preservation. Chemotherapy and radiation will then be given by medical oncologists and radiation oncologists doctors that specialize in giving chemotherapy and radiation. This is called a multi-modal many methods approach.
Radiation alone for MIBC is not a choice to control the spread of bladder tumors. Some chemotherapy drugs that may be used along with radiation are cisplatin, 5-FU and Mitomycin-C. Once treatment is complete, follow up includes ongoing cystoscopy exams, cross-sectional imaging e.
CT scan and other procedures to check to make sure the cancer has not come back. Thus it is very important for you to be watched closely by your health care team in case the tumor progresses and cystectomy becomes needed.
For more information on bladder preservation, view our Bladder Preservation Therapy video.
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