Bladder cancer is probably a bit further down your list of concerns than other cancers and conditions. Still, knowing the number-one sign of bladder cancer can help you catch it early and get the treatment you need.
Meet the experts: Arjun Balar, M.D., a medical oncologist and a senior vice president of global clinical development at Eli Lilly & Co.; Ramkishen Narayanan, M.D., a urologist and urologic oncologist and director of the Center for Urologic Health at the Disney Family Cancer Center at Providence Medical Institute in Burbank, CA.
Even though bladder cancer is much more common in men than in women, it’s not unheard of in the latter group. “Many people mistakenly think bladder cancer is only a disease of older men,” Arjun Balar, M.D., a medical oncologist and a senior vice president of global clinical development at Eli Lilly & Co, previously told Prevention. “But there are more than 19,000 women who are diagnosed with this cancer every year in the United States.”
The most common type of bladder cancer is urothelial carcinoma. “This arises from the urothelium, which is a specialized cell layer on the inner surface of the urinary tract,” explains Ramkishen Narayanan, M.D., a urologist and urologic oncologist and director of the Center for Urologic Health at the Disney Family Cancer Center at Providence Medical Institute in Burbank, CA. “The urothelium has the unique property of having multiple cell layers that can transition from stretched to contracted as the bladder fills and empties, which is why bladder cancer is also known as transitional cell carcinoma.”
So what is the number-one sign that should prompt a call to your doctor? Dr. Narayanan says it is something called “gross painless hematuria,” or blood in the urine that is not associated with any pain. “This may involve a brief episode of bloody urine that stops and then returns several days or weeks later,” he explains. “This is a warning sign because inflammatory and infectious conditions such as a kidney stone or urinary tract infection typically involve pain or burning with urination.” Bladder tumors, on the other hand, typically do not cause pain at first.
Dr. Narayanan adds that symptoms such as feeling like you constantly need to pee or urinating more often in the absence of a urinary tract infection also merit further investigation, especially if you also have other risk factors for bladder cancer such as a family history or a history of smoking. Ultimately, anything that feels out of the ordinary for you is worth making an appointment. According to the American Cancer Society, when the initial cancer is caught before spreading, the survival rate for bladder cancer is 98%, so catching it early is critical to effective treatment and returning to your optimal health.
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