Basic Things You Must Know About Kidney Cancer

Bladder cancer refers to several types of malignant tumors that grow within the urinary bladder. It is the 4th most common cancer for men in the US and the 9th most common for women. Annually there are around 47,000 cases detected among men and around 16,000 among women reported in the US.  Of these there are around 12,000 mortalities.

While the statistics indicate that the incidence of the disease is higher among men than women, the mortality rates for Bladder Cancer are higher among women. The lower bladder cancer survival rates among women are because the diagnosis is generally delayed for women. Women typically get diagnosed with the disease 6-9 months later than men because their symptoms are get mistaken for urinary tract infections and they are not treated for cancer until the symptoms worsen, consequently they start receiving treatment at a much later stage of the disease than men.

Hence for reasons of late diagnosis, the 5 year survival rate for women with bladder cancer is 78% which is equal to the 10 year survival rate for men and the 10 year bladder cancer survival rate is 69% for women, which is the 15 year survival rate for men. The bladder cancer survival rates for women are thus 5 years less than for men.

In cases where the disease is detected early, the survival rates are very good. If discovered early while the cancer is still localized, the overall 5 year survival rate for Bladder Cancer is 94%. Once the cancer spreads to the other pelvic organs, the 5 year survival rate drops to 49% and after it has spread to the other organs of the body to 6%.

Women have a higher susceptibility to the risk factors that lead to the disease than men. Smoking is one such factor. When men and women smoke comparably high levels, women are at a 30-50% higher risk for Bladder Cancer than men.  Early menopause is another risk factor that increases a woman’s susceptibility for the disease by as much as 32% when menopause occurs between 43-47 years and 60% when menopause occurs at 42 years or earlier.

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