Bladder Cancer

Bladder Cancer

Hunter Smith

2/20/14

Bladder Cancer

       Every year, bladder cancer kills. The higher the stage, the higher risk you have of dying. Bladder cancer has many different types and it is treatable if found early enough. The cancer can be found throughout the urinary tract and it can be treated if found early enough.

       What is a bladder? A bladder is a pear sized, muscle sac that is designed to accomidate 400-600 mL of urine. Urine travels down ureters and into the bladder. During urination, two valves open which allows urine to pass through the urethra. A urethra varries in size depending on gender. Since a man has a penis, his urethra would be about 8 inches whial a womans is 1.5 inches.

       How does one contract bladder cancer? The definate cause of bladder cancer is not known, but researches see that bladder cancer typically happens in smokers rather than non smokers. Bladder cancer is caused when there is irritation on the bladder tissue for a long period of time such as catheters, dyes, chemicals, or having the parasite that causes schistosomiasis

       What are the symptoms of bladder cancer? Pain during urination, frequent urination, feeling the need to urinate many times throughout the night, feeling the need to urinate, but not being able to pass urine, lower back pain on one side of the body and in advanced cases it may include pain, unexplained appetite loss, and weight loss.

       What is Bladder cancer? There are many different types of bladder cancer, such as, Transitional cell (urothelial) carcinoma, wich is most common, Squamous cell carcinoma, Adenocarcinoma, Small cell carcinoma, and Sarcoma. Transitional cell Carcinoma cells look like the urothelial cells that are located in the bladder. If the tumors are found anywhere in the urinary tract, all of the parts have to be examined. If the urinary tract is infected it is very easy to spread. Bladder cancers are mostly examined by invasine or non-invasive. Non-invasive is where bladder cancers are still in the inner layer of cells but have not grown into the deeper layers. Invasive cancers grow into the lamina propria or even deeper into the muscle layer. Invasive cancers are more likely to spread and are harder to treat. Transitional cell carcinomas are also divided into 2 subtypes, papillary and flat, based on how they grow. Papillary grows into the deeper layers and it has finger like projections that grow outward into the inner layers. These tumors are called non-invasive papillary cancers. Very low-grade, non-invasive papillary cancer is sometimes called papillary neoplasm of low-malignant potential and tends to have a very good ending. Flat carcinomas do not grow toward the hollow part of the bladder at all. If a flat tumor is only in the inner layer of bladder cells, it is known as a non-invasive flat carcinoma. If either a papillary or flat tumor grows into deeper layers of the bladder, it is called an invasive transitional cell. Squamous cell carcinoma, under a microscope, looks a lot like the flat cells that are found on the surface of the skin. Adenocarcinoma cells have a lot in common with gland-forming cells of colon cancers. Small cell carcinoma start in nerve-like cells called neuroendocrine cells. These cancers grow fast and typically need to be treated with chemotherapy like that used for small cell carcinoma of the lung. Sarcanomas start in the muscle cells of the bladder, but they are rare.

       What are the way scientists have been researching and treating bladder cancer? Scientists are seeing the changes in DNA that causes cancers, they are now trying to figure out if the tests turn off the cancer cells. You can test for bladder cancer very easy, just simply looking for telomerase in your urine. Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein that is an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Since bladder cancer is very easy to spread into other parts of the urinary tract, researchers are testing different vitamins and substances that can prevent further spreading. They treat cancer in a variety of different ways. Surgery, they sit at a control panel in the operating room and maneuver robotic arms to do the surgery. Its called robotic-assisted surgery and they use it for many other cancers too. Intravesical therapy researchers are looking at a number of new compounds to see if putting them into the bladder after surgery can help lower the risk of the cancer coming back. Photodynamic therapy is where a special light-sensitive drug is injected into the blood and allowed to collect in the tumor cells for a few days. Then a special type of laser light is focused on the inner lining of the bladder through a cystoscope. The light changes the drug in the cancer cells into a new chemical that can kill them. This is used for early stages of cancer. But, a major side effect is you will have major sun sensitivity. Targeted therapies are where they have drugs to directly target the cancer or tumor. Gene therapy is adding or changing the actual genes inside cancer cells or other cells in the body is another new method being tested for bladder cancer.