Hello friends, thanks a lot for reading my content and for the support shown to me consistently. Some time ago, I wrote about thyroid cancer, and from the reaction I got on that article, I knew very well that, a lot of people are interested in the topic. Understandably, thyroid cancer is not the only type of cancer that exists, so I will be exploring another type of existing cancer type and subsequently build on it gradually as time goes on. You can read about thyroid cancer, Here.
Bladder cancer, is another type of cancer that exists, I was marvelled when I first heard about bladder cancer, why would cancer choose to affect the bladder of all places and what could be the causes of bladder cancer, I asked myself these questions over and over and certainly, I will be answering these questions and exploring a lot more through this article.
The bladder: This is an important organ of the body, it is a hollow organ located in the lower part of the abdomen, the shape of a bladder could be likened to that of a small balloon, encamped with a muscular wall that gives it the opportunity to enlarge or reduce, giving it the capacity to store urine adequately produced by the kidneys. Remember that, every human has two kidneys, each of these kidneys are found on each side of the backbone right above the waist. The kidney contains tiny tubules, the tiny tubules filters and cleans the blood, they also remove waste products and produce urine, the urine flows through each of the kidney and moves through a long tube referred to as the ureter and moves into the bladder. The bladder is responsible for holding the urine until it moves through the urethra and moves out of the body.
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Bladder cancer, starts from the point when the cells in the bladder develops changes in their DNA. The DNA of a cell contains the instructions on what the cell should do, the changes made, instructs the cell on when to rapidly multiply, then proceeds to live when the healthy cells in the body dies. Abnormal cells produced from a tumor, with the ability to invade as well as destroy normal body tissue, in due time, abnormal cells would break and then spread all through the body. There are different types of cancer cells, the type of bladder cell is highly dependent on where the bladder cell starts from in the body. There are three main types of bladder cancer;
Urothelial Carcinoma: This type of cancer was formerly known as, transitional cell carcinoma, and it is the most common type of bladder cell currently existing in the United States. It occurs in the cell, that lines the inner wall of the bladder. The urothelial cells expand the moment the bladder gets full, then it contracts the moment the bladder becomes empty. The same cells line the inner walls of the ureters and the urethra, the chance of having cancers form in those areas are highly possible.
Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Squamous cells are found in the bladder, it comes in a thin, flat form, lining the inner region of the bladder. Sqamous cell carcinoma is highly linked with bladder irritation, although not common in the United States, it is more common in those part of the world where schistosomiasis is paramount - it is a parasitic infection, it is a common cause for bladder infection.
Adenocarcinoma: This type of cancer cell is extremely rare, and it starts from the cells that make up mucus-secreting glands in the bladder.
webmd.com
Asides from the categorizing done above, another method of categorizing cancer cells by health care providers are;
Noninvasive cancer cells: This category of bladder cancer, are tumors found in the little section of tissues, or they can also be described as the type of cancer found on the surface or close to the surface of the bladder.
Non-muscle invasive cancer cells: This is the category of cancer cell that moves deep into the bladder but has not really spread into the muscle.
Muscle invasive cancer cells: At this stage, bladder cancer has developed into bladder wall muscle, they may have at this point spread into the fatty layers or even the tissues on the organs found outside the bladder.
A large category of persons with bladder cancer usually experience one or more of these symptoms;
Painful urination: Discomfort during urination is medically described as dysuria, the pain usually originates in the bladder, urethra or the perineum. For the male gender, the region between the scrotum and the anus is called the perineum while for the female gender, the perineum is the region between the anus and the vagina opening. Painful urination signifies a lot of medical conditions, it is not particular to bladder cancer alone, only an appropriate test would ascertain the presence of bladder cancer.
Blood in the urine: The medical term for blood in the urine is Hematuria, there are other conditions that could lead to having blood in the urine, some of the infections are; kidney disease, infections and some blood disorder. Once there is a noticed sign of urine in the blood, regardless of the quantity, medical help should be sort first.
Frequent and urgent urination: The urge to urinate more often than usual, associated with a sudden urge, is a thing to be concerned about. However, there are other possible causes of frequent urination which could be; diuretics, anxiety, having an overactive bladder, vaginal infection, diabetes, excessive liquid or alcohol intake and even pregnancy, so only an appropriate medical test would determine what the reason behind the urgent and frequent feeling of urination could be, but bladder cancer as a fact cannot be ruled out until an appropriate test is conducted.
Urinary Incontinence: This happens when there is control loss on the bladder, in some cases, the body completely empties the bladder and in other cases, there is only a minor leakage. There are other possible causes of urinary incontinence asides from bladder cancer, so the condition could either be a temporary or a chronic one depending on the causative factor, but once again, only a proper test could help us determine the cause of urinary incontinence.
Abdominal pain: Another possible sign of bladder cancer is, abdominal pain, which occurs between the chest and the pelvic region, the abdominal pain could be crampy, dull, sharp or even dull, abdominal pain could be linked to other conditions and of course only a proper test would tell if it is a sign of bladder cancer.
Lower back pain is another possible sign of bladder cancer, but there are other existing diseases characterized by lower back pain, examples are; sciatica, arthritis, kidney infections, spine infections, spinal cord infections amongst others and once again a proper test would show if the back pain felt tells of the presence of bladder cancer, or it is as a result of the conditions mentioned above.
The main cause of bladder cancer has not been determined, but it is clear that, abnormal cells grow and quickly multiply in an uncontrollable way, invading other tissues. There are however existing risk factors that could increase the chances of developing bladder cancer, some of the risk factors include;
- Consuming diet with high fat content.
- Family history of bladder cancer.
- The existence of other chronic bladder infections.
- A previous treatment with a certain chemotherapy medication drug called -Cytoxan.
- A previous radiation therapy for cancer treatment in the pelvic region.
- Being a male.
- Consuming low amount of fluid.
- Old age, usually occurs in people older than 55 years of age.
Cancer bladder comes in different stages;
The first stage of bladder cancer is stage 0, in this case, the cancer has not spread beyond the lining of the bladder.
The second stage of bladder cancer is stage 1, at this stage, the bladder cancer has spread beyond the lining of the bladder, but it has not gotten to the muscle layer in the bladder.
The third stage of bladder cancer is stage 2, at this stage, the cancer has spread to the layer of the muscle in the bladder.
The fourth stage of bladder cancer is stage 3, at this point, the cancer in the bladder has spread into the tissues surrounding the bladder.
The fifth stage of bladder cancer is stage 4, at this stage, the cancer has spread beyond the bladder to other neighboring regions of the body.
Stage 0 and stage 1 bladder cancer is often treated with surgery, which is used for the removal of the tumor from the bladder, chemotherapy or immunotherapy could also be used in this case, this involves the intake of medication, causing the immune system to attack the cancer cells.
Treating stage 2 and stage 3 of bladder cancer includes;
Chemotherapy and the removal of part of the bladder.
Removal of the entire bladder, through ''radical cystectomy'', followed by a surgery that would create a new path for urine to leave the body.
Chemotherapy, radiation therapy and immunotherapy can as well be done to shrink the tumor before surgical procedure, to treat the cancer when surgery is not possible, to prevent the cancer from recurring and of course, to destroy the leftover cancer cells after a successful surgical operation.
Stage 4 cancer treatment includes;
Chemotherapy without the use of surgery to relieve the symptoms and for life extension.
Radical cystectomy and the removal of the surrounding lymph nodes could be done, after this, a surgery would be done to create a new path for the urine to exit the body.
Chemotherapy, radiation therapy and immunotherapy after a successful surgery to destroy the remaining cancer cells has to be done, in order to relieve cancer cells as well as relieve symptoms and extend life.
Clinical trial drugs can also be used for the treatment of bladder cancer.
Since there is no main cause for bladder cancer yet, there is as well no specific way to prevent it, there are however lifestyle changes that can reduce the possibility of developing bladder cancer.
- Consume lots of water.
- Avoid smoking.
- Avoid every form of carcinogenic chemicals.
- Avoid anything that may bring infections.
- Consume high-fiber contents.
Conclusion.
Bladder cancer is a serious condition, when left untreated, the cancer may spread to other parts of the body. Early detection and treatment would increase the high chance of survival of the patient, just like other exisiting cancer types.
References.
https://www.cancer.gov/types/bladder/patient/bladder-treatment-pdq
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bladder-cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20356104
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/14326-bladder-cancer
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/bladder-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/signs-and-symptoms.html