What Women Should Know About Smoking and Bladder Cancer
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Many women concerned about their health are surprisingly unaware of their risk for Bladder Cancer. Yet, the number of women who have had Bladder Cancer is similar to that of ovarian and cervical cancers. Sadly, women have a higher death rate from Bladder Cancer than men because women more often are diagnosed at an advanced stage in the disease, when treatment is more complicated, invasive and expensive, making the prognosis worse.
Diagnosis in women is often delayed because symptoms are overlooked or misinterpreted. The percentage of men who survive ten years is greater than women who survive five. When caught early, however, bladder cancer has a five year survival rate of 94%, but with advanced disease five year survival can be less than 10%.
What can be done? Catch Bladder Cancer early. Learn the warning signs. Don’t postpone seeing a doctor or urologist. One of the first signs is blood in the urine (hematuria). Sometimes the urine appears normal and blood is detected only through a test. Other signs can include painful urination, increased frequency of urination, a feeling of needing to urinate but not being able to do so, and chronic bladder inflammation from recurrent urinary tract infections. While each of these symptoms might have benign causes, the possibility of bladder cancer should not be excluded, especially for women who are at higher risk.
Smoking, or exposure to tobacco smoke, is the most common risk factor. Smokers are twice as likely as nonsmokers to develop Bladder Cancer and 30% of bladder cancer deaths in women are from smoking. Bladder Cancer in women is expected to increase in the next ten years because of the growing number of women smokers who are between ages 18 to 35 today.
Hairdressers and workers exposed to chemicals used in dry cleaning facilities and the production of dyes, paper, rope, apparel, rubber and petroleum products are also at a higher risk for bladder cancer.
How do we test for Bladder Cancer? Diagnosis of bladder cancer includes a urine test, cystoscopy (a look in the bladder with a small telescope) and biopsy. The new standard of care to diagnose bladder cancer is the NMP22(R) BladderChek(R) Test, which detects elevated levels of the NMP22 protein in urine, and cystoscopy. Bladder cancer can increase levels of this protein in the urine, even during early stages of the disease. The BladderChek Test is painless and non-invasive. It is performed in the doctor’s office with four drops of urine and the result is available during the patient’s visit. It is a rapid, accurate and cost-effective test that is reimbursed by Medicare and most major insurance carriers. If the BladderChek Test result is positive, a cystoscopy examination to confirm the diagnosis is done.
Bladder cancer can be detected early. At the first sign, see your doctor. Have your tests.
The preceding information was provided by Robert Schlesinger, M.D., Medical Director, Continence Center, New England Sinai Hospital; Clinical Instructor in Urology, Tufts University School of Medicine
Source: Business Wire
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