Disease Symptom Tips :: Bladder Cancer Symptoms
Bladder Cancer Symptoms: The Symptoms of Bladder Cancer
Unfortunately, visible bladder cancer symptoms often don't exhibit themselves until the advanced stages of the disease, making early detection absolutely critical.
To learn more about identifying bladder cancer and how to protect yourself if you're at risk for bladder cancer, keep reading.
The Symptoms of Bladder Cancer
The common bladder cancer symptoms that are visible to the naked eye include blood in the urine (which gives the urine a rusty to red appearance), painful urination or possibly frequent urination.
Unfortunately, many of these symptoms are also associated with bladder infections, common prostrate problems, prostate infections, prostate cancer, and cystitis. That means diagnosing the disease can often be difficult.
Diagnosing and Detecting Bladder Cancer
If a patient is at risk for developing bladder cancer (typically indicated by a genetic family history of the disease), then they are often referred to a urologist who can test for the disease using cytology.
While cytology can be an effective way to test for bladder cancer, it's not a sensitive test and can sometimes produce negative results even when cancer is present.
There is also the cytoscopy, which is essentially a flexible tube with a small camera that is inserted into the urethra and bladder. Urologists then look for suspicious lesions, which, if found, are then removed and biposied.
Treating Bladder Cancer
How bladder cancer is treated will often depend on the stage of the disease and what form it has taken. For example, a superficial tumor may be easily removed in surgery simply by shaving it off. In other cases, immunotherapy is used to treat tumors, while chemotherapy may be used with others.
Tumors that are not superficial and have infiltrated the muscle walls of the bladder may require extreme surgery, including a partial or full removal of the bladder.
If this happens, the patient's urinary stream is then diverted. Alternatively or in conjunction with surgery, radiation and then chemotherapy is then used to treat the remainder of the disease.
Identifying Risk Factors for Bladder Cancer
The most common cause of bladder cancer is exposure to environmental factors alongside an increased genetic disposition to the disease. It's suspected that bladder cancer may partially be caused by the bladder carrying carcinogens in the bladder.
Therefore, recent studies have shown that drinking more than 1.5 liters of water in a day can dramatically reduce an individual's risk for developing bladder cancer.
It's important to remember that bladder cancer symptoms may not always be evident or they may not appear until the advanced stages of the disease. So, if you have a family history that includes bladder cancer, it's important to tell your family doctor and to see a urologist regularly.
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DiseaseSymptomTips.com :: Bladder Cancer Symptoms