Bladder Cancer
What Is It?
The bladder is like a balloon which stores urine. It is a stretchy bag, made of muscle tissue, and can hold about 500mls or 3 cups of urine. The bladder is made up of a number of layers. How your specialist treats your bladder cancer will depend on how far into these layers the cancer has grown. This tells your doctor the stage of your bladder cancer.Symptoms
The most common symptoms of bladder cancer are:
Blood in the urine
Frequency - needing to pass urine very often
Urgency - needing to pass urine very suddenly
Pain when passing urine
If you have these symptoms you will not necessarily have cancer. You are more
likely to have a urine infection particularly if you do not have blood in your
urine but you should always tell your doctor straight away.
Treatment
If you have early stage bladder cancer, you will need to have the tumours in your bladder removed. If you have invasive bladder cancer you will need to have either:Surgery to remove part of the bladder
Surgery to remove the whole bladder
Radiotherapy
You may also have chemotherapy before or after your surgery or radiotherapy.
Links
Cancer HelpNational Cancer Institute