Bladder Cancer Myths

Is it true only senior citizens get bladder cancer?

Although the mean or the average age of diagnosis for both men and women is in their late sixties to their early seventies, bladder cancer can be seen, and has been described in teenagers as well. Personally, the youngest patient that I ever saw with bladder cancer was 24 years old, and it's an interesting history that points out to us how some patients are diagnosed late. This particular gentleman happened to be involved in a motorcycle accident where he had a crushed pelvis and a number of other injuries, including a head injury, and he spent about 3 months in the hospital recovering from this. As you can imagine, with the extent of injuries, and being in the intensive care unit, he had a catheter in for a good portion of that time. It was noted that periodically his urine would turn bloody, and it was assumed by everyone, including the attending physicians, that because he's got a catheter in, the blood must be related to the catheterization. Once he got to the rehab unit, the catheter was removed and he was on his way to recovery. I was asked to see him, because 4 months after the injuries he still had some blood in the urine. I went ahead and scheduled him for a cystoscopic examination and, unsuspected, he had a relatively large bladder tumor on the side wall of the bladder that was responsible for the bleeding. Again, it's a disease that can occur as early as the late teenage years, and obviously in the older population as well.

Is it true only men get bladder cancer?

The population based data and surveys, and the data on cancer incidents shows that although currently somewhere between two thirds to three quarters of patients diagnosed with bladder cancer are men, a third of the patients are women.

Does cranberry juice prevent bladder cancer?

Cranberry juice per se doesn't protect anyone from bladder cancer. The mechanism of cranberry juice for treating urinary tract infections is twofold. One is by keeping well hydrated, you tend to flush the bladder out and lower the PH - by turning the urine a little bit more acidic, it prevents the colonization or growth of bacteria. There's no data to suggest that drinking cranberry juice, other than the fact you're hydrating yourself well (which you can accomplish with water), would do any better.

Is it true urinary tract infections lead to bladder cancer?

The short answer is no. A lot of women have bladder infections. In fact, it's expected that 1 out of 3 women, during her adult life, will experience a urinary tract infection. Despite the very high incidence or occurrence of bladder infections in women, they have a significantly lower lifetime risk of bladder cancer than men, so the data does not support it. There have been no studies that I'm familiar with that would document that a recurrent cystitis or a recurrent bladder infection has led to the development of bladder cancer.