In women, bladder cancer is 4 times less common than in men. It has not been fully clarified until now, which leads to the development of this disease, but has been linked to certain diseases and effects that increase the risk of the disease. To diseases that can cause cancer, include chronic inflammation of the bladder and papilloma of the bladder. Effects that accompany the development of the disease include work with aniline dyes, smoking.
The first signs of bladder cancer
Symptoms of the disease depend on the stage of the pathological process. With a non-invasive form of bladder cancer and the initial stage of the invasive process (cancer in situ), there may not be any symptoms at all, so it remains a challenge to determine how early blast cancer is affected, because the symptoms can appear already in advanced stages.
With an invasive form of cancer with infiltration of the deep layers of its wall and surrounding tissues, much depends on the localization of the process, and the first signs of bladder cancer will appear more quickly if the process is near the ureteral or urethral orifices. In this case, bladder cancer manifests itself as a violation of the outflow of urine from the kidney or bladder.
Symptoms of bladder cancer
The main symptom of bladder cancer remains hematuria. Blood in the urine with cancer is often turbid, dark brown, reminiscent of meat slops. Blood initially appears in small amounts, less often in the form of impurities, clots or fresh scarlet blood, but the cancer is characterized by the duration of hematuria, which is not amenable to treatment.
Other symptoms that often occur with hematuria are frequent, sometimes painful urination, frequent urge to urinate, with the infiltration of the walls, symptoms of a decrease in the volume of the bladder are possible. Sometimes, along with blood, there is pus or cloudy flakes in the urine. Pain in cancer is not only during urination - often disturbing drawing, aching pain in the small pelvis, giving off in the perineum, in the coccyx and legs.
When the cancer grows to the full thickness of the wall and to other organs, fistulas can appear between the bladder and the vagina, rectum or on the skin above the pubis, which leads to severe purulent complications, pain and symptoms on the part of the organs where the tumor has grown.
Metastasis of cancer in distant organs will be accompanied by symptoms and from their side: with metastases in regional lymph nodes, lymphatic drainage from the limbs may be disturbed, with metastases to the liver sometimes there is jaundice, heaviness in the hypochondrium to the right and intoxication intensifies, with metastases to the bronchi and lungs there is a cough, shortness of breath and hemoptysis.
Cancer is always accompanied by an increase in the symptoms of intoxication: first, it can disturb general weakness, pulling the pain in the muscles, subfebrile temperature appears, all accompanied by a rapid loss of appetite and weight.
Because of the violation of outflow from the kidneys, symptoms of hydronephrosis (dilating pain in the kidney region) may appear first, and as the parenchyma deteriorates, the symptoms of renal failure increase: itching and dryness of the skin, swelling of the body, vomiting, a decrease in the total amount of urine released per day before anuria.