Bladder Cancer Survival Rates

Bladder is a muscular, hollow, balloon like organ, that stores urine produced by the kidney. Urine is the waste product of our body. This bladder is lined with special cells, so that urine is not absorbed back into the body. These cells are called transitional cells or urothelial cells. Cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of abnormal cells, which leads to dysfunction of particular body organ. These cells are in abnormal forms due to transformations and replace the healthy body cells. A tumor is a result of such uncontrolled multiplication of abnormal cells. When cancer cells start invading other body parts, it is called metastasis.

Types of Bladder Cancer

Our bladder is formed from different groups of cells and hence, there are basically three types of cancers, they are, Transitional cell carcinoma, Squamous cell carcinoma and Adenocarcinoma. Transitional cell carcinoma, as the name suggests is the bladder cancer where the transitional cells multiply and form tumors over the inner lining of bladder. Squamous cells are produced in the bladder when any infection or irritation occurs in the bladder, squamous carcinoma is cancer of such cells. Adenocarcinoma is the bladder cancer of cells that secrete mucus in the bladder. Out of all these three types, Transitional cell carcinoma is the most common type of bladder cancer and other two bladder cancers are observed rarely. The symptoms of bladder cancer are quite similar to other urinary tract problems, they are, frequent and painful urination, blood in the urine, urinary tract infection, etc. The causes of bladder cancer are not clear yet, but smoking and exposure to harmful chemicals are considered as some of the risk factors. Let us take a look at the survival rate of bladder cancer.

Survival Rates of Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer survival rate is nothing but a statistical analysis, that presents the survival percentage of patients who suffered from a type of bladder cancer, with the stage of the bladder cancer and number of years that he/she survived after the bladder cancer was diagnosed. The factors that govern the bladder cancer survival rates are, type of the bladder cancer, stage of the bladder cancer, the age and overall health of the patient. Many of the cancers are analyzed for a five year survival rate, which indicates the percentage of patients who survived for five years after the diagnosis of the cancer.

Early detection of any cancer increases the chances of survival. Since, many a time bladder cancer is detected in its initial stages, the bladder cancer survival rate is quite good. Studies say, that with early discovery of this cancer, the percentage of survival for next five years is 94%. The table given below gives the percentage of survival for different stages of bladder cancer.

Bladder Cancer Stage	Survival Rate
0	98%
1	88%
2	63%
3	46%
4	15%

Bladder cancer has recurrence percentage of 50-80%, even after successfully treating the disease. Thus, the patients need to have a regular follow-up with the physician. The recurrent bladder cancer survival rate is almost 39%. Metastatic bladder cancer is when the cancer cells has invaded other body organs or lymph nodes, the metastatic bladder cancer survival rate depends on the stage of the cancer and is approximately 50%.

This was a brief information on bladder cancer survival rates. Bladder cancer is more common in men as compared to women and every year, almost 38,000 men and 15,000 women are detected with bladder cancer in United States. Caucasians have more susceptibility towards this cancer, the reason is still unknown. Survival rates are mere statistical analysis and the survival of a patient may not be governed by these numbers. Appropriate treatment, proper follow-up tests and precautions, can help the person to recover from bladder cancer.