Bladder Cancer - Infographic

Bladder cancer occurs when the bladder cells grow and divide abnormally beyond their usual boundaries. It begins from a balloon shaped organ in the pelvic area that stores urine. It is the fifth most common cancer diagnosed in US. Bladder cancer occurs mostly in older people . In India more than 1 million people suffer from bladder cancer. Men are 3 to 4 times more likely get this cancer than women during their lifetime. The chance of this cancer in men is 1 in 26, but in women is 1 in 88.

Two different kinds of risk factors are there for bladder cancer such as, which can be changed and which cannot be changed. Among these factors, smoking is the most common one. Bladder cancer develops with many symptoms that include blood in urine, pelvic pain, back pain. Majority of the bladder cancer can be diagnosed in an early stage which can be treatable. Delay in diagnosis and treatment will lead to invasive or advanced bladder cancer which is quite difficult to cure.

Survival rates depend on the type and stage of bladder cancer that is diagnosed. If the tumor is in an early stage, the rate of 5-year survival is 96%. If it is invasive cancer which has not yet spread, the 5-year survival rate is 70%. If the cancer spreads to the surrounding tissue and lymph nodes, the survival rate for 5 year is 34% and if it spreads to the other parts of body, the 5-year survival rate is 5% only. Several techniques are used to treat bladder cancer which includes surgery, immunotherapy, gene therapy. National Cancer Institute (NCI) spends quite lot of money to treat bladder cancer. US spends around $4.1 billion for treatment of bladder cancer every year. Currently researches are going on to develop vaccine for enhancing immune power against several types of cancers including bladder cancer.