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Bladder Cancer Delays

 Bladder Cancer Delays

Bladder cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the UK. It is the thirteenth most common cancer in women and those over 60 years old. The main risk factor for bladder cancer is increasing age, but smoking and exposure to some industrial chemicals also increase risk. It is important to recognise the symptoms. Bladder Cancer Delays have a profound effect on diagnosis and treatment.

Symptoms

Bladder cancer is identified by blood in the urine or blood found on urine testing. This is called Haematuria and is usually painless. You may see blood in the urine or notice that the urine is brown.

Sometimes the symptoms come and go. Other symptoms can include needing to urinate more frequently, urge to urinate and a burning sensation when passing urine. Persistent urine infection symptoms are not always bladder cancer symptoms. Many women passing through the menopause or suffering with Mesh complications suffer UTI and take routine antibiotics to treat. Persistent symptoms must be investigated for bladder cancer. It is important not to cause any Bladder Cancer Delays due to misdiagnosis.

If bladder cancer reaches an advanced stage it can spread and the symptoms include:

• Pelvic pain
• Bone pain
• unintentional weight loss
• swelling of the legs

Treatment

The treatment options for bladder cancer largely depend on how advanced the cancer is.

If diagnosed with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (stages CIS, Ta and T1), your treatment plan depends on the risk of the cancer returning or spreading beyond the lining of your bladder.

This factors used to calculate risk are:

• the number of tumours present in your bladder
• whether the tumours are larger than 3cm (1 inch) in diameter
• whether you’ve had bladder cancer before
• the grade of the cancer cells

The treatment plan for muscle-invasive bladder cancer depends on how far the cancer has spread. With T2 and T3 bladder cancer, treatment aims to cure the condition, or at least control it for a long time.

Other alternatives are surgery or radiotherapy treatment depending on your individual circumstances. Muscle-invasive bladder cancer is treated by Chemotherapy.

It is important to investigate symptoms properly to rule out bladder cancer. Start treatmentquickly to stop the spread of the cancer and to choose the most appropriate treatment. Late diagnosis and late treatment make treatment longer, more invasive and sadly not always successful.