What Is Bladder Cancer? (video)
Symptoms of this treatable cancer include blood in the urine
Symptoms of this treatable cancer include blood in the urine
Munveer Bhangoo, MD, a hematologist and oncologist at the Scripps MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses bladder cancer, its symptoms, how it is diagnosed and new treatments.
Video transcript
What is bladder cancer?
Bladder cancer is one of the most common urothelial malignancies in the United States among patients with cancer. It can effect the bladder, but also extend into the upper urinary tract. It presents with both a localized and more advanced stage for which there are varying treatments for that malignancy.
What are the symptoms of bladder cancer?
Unfortunately, bladder cancer can present very insidiously. Often times patients may have no symptoms, but the most common symptom would involve blood in the urine.
How do you diagnose bladder cancer?
Typically bladder cancer is diagnosed on cystoscopy. That is a procedure where a urologist will actually evaluate the bladder and often times identify a tumor during that procedure.
What are new treatments for bladder cancer?
Fortunately, there have been major advances in the treatment of bladder cancer in the last few years. The use of immunotherapeutic agents, which harness our own immune system to attack tumors, has been shown to be beneficial in patients with more advanced bladder cancers. In addition, targeted treatments are becoming more and more common, and we expect to have more treatments in the coming years.
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