Bladder Cancer Causes

Introduction

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), an estimated 70,980 Americans is going to be newly diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2009. Of those diagnosed, an approximate 14,330 will die from the disease in the same year. However, there is reason for hope. Based on ACS there are more than 500,000 survivors of the disease spread out through the entire nation.

Cell Growth

Bladder cancer takes place when the genetic material that makes up the cells from the bladder tissue becomes altered. The altered cells start to divide at an increasing rate, slowly growing larger and larger until a mass is formed, called a tumor. Otherwise caught in time, cells using this primary tumor can spread into surrounding lymph nodes and the bloodstream. The cancer can then use the vessels of blood and lymph system to travel along with other sites. The cells then form secondary tumors in organs and nodes throughout the body. According to the American Cancer Society, no cause has been determined for developing the condition; however, there are risk factors that may make you weaker to the formation of bladder cancer.

Many individuals think that cigarette smoking causes only carcinoma of the lung cancer. If you are one of them, reconsider that thought.

A study published this week in the Journal with the American Medical Association (JAMA) finds that chance of developing bladder cancer - for men and women - is higher among smokers than previously believed.

Doctors such as Dr. Viraj Master, associate professor of urology, Emory School of Medicine and director of clinical urology research in the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, see patients each week whose cancers likely were caused by smoking.

“Patients are often surprised to know of the link between smoking and bladder cancer, but it’s there and it’s real,” says Dr. Master. “Smoking’s effects around the body are both pervasive and lethal.”

How can it be that cigarette smoke gets to your bladder? Actually, the actual smoke does not, but the carcinogens in tobacco smoke do get into your system and thus into other areas of your body. The study, authored by researchers in the National Cancer Institute, points too an apparent boost in the concentration of carcinogens has occurred in the past 50 years, even while tar and nicotine concentrations have been reduced.