Bladder Cancer

Each year over 10,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Some of the possible causes or risk factors for bladder cancer developing include:

• Smoking
  The biggest risk factor for bladder cancer.
• Exposure to chemicals at work
  This includes chemicals previously used in dye factories and industries that worked with rubber, textiles, printing, gasworks, plastics, paints and chemicals. The link between these chemicals and bladder cancer was discovered in the 1950s and 60s, so many of them were banned. However, it can take more than 25 years after exposure to these chemicals for bladder cancer to develop. If you think you were exposed to certain chemicals through your work, let your doctor know.
• Age
  It’s unusual for anyone under the age of 40 to get bladder cancer, but it becomes more common as people get older.
• Gender
  Bladder cancer is more common in men than in women.
• Infection
  Repeated (chronic) urinary infections and untreated bladder stones have been linked with a less common type of bladder cancer called squamous cell cancer. People who are paralysed have more bladder infections and also a higher risk of getting this type of bladder cancer.