How to correctly understand bladder cancer

The increasing incidence of cancer has made ordinary urban people more vigilant. When we cough up blood, have blood in the stool, or have blood in the urine, we will feel nervous. The information society has also opened up a green channel for us to obtain health knowledge. When we see medical terms such as laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery, we are less unfamiliar with them than before.

Bladder cancer is a common tumor of the urinary system, but people still have some misunderstandings about its prevention and treatment.

Gross hematuria does not mean bladder cancer

When it comes to hematuria, people will inevitably feel a little nervous. Hematuria means that a part of the body has a "red light" and everyone will worry: Do I have bladder cancer? The characteristics of hematuria caused by bladder cancer are: painless, intermittent, and visible hematuria.

Clinically, the most common symptom of bladder cancer is hematuria, but hematuria is not the "exclusive signal" of bladder cancer. Visible hematuria may be caused by other reasons besides cancer. For example, bladder stones, bladder inflammation, kidney or ureteral stones, glomerulonephritis and other diseases may cause hematuria. Elderly men with prostate hypertrophy may also cause hematuria due to rupture of small veins in the prostate when urinating with great effort.

Therefore, if the signal of hematuria appears, you should first go to the hospital for a check-up. The simplest examination is a routine urine test and B-ultrasound examination, which can basically tell the cause of the hematuria.

Bladder cancer does not mean death

Does having bladder cancer mean death? The reality is much more optimistic than we think. Most patients with early bladder cancer have a chance of being cured. Cure here means that the cancer has not recurred or metastasized within 5 years. If it is a low-grade, superficial bladder cancer discovered early, the most commonly used treatment method is transurethral bladder tumor resection under the guidance of cystoscopy. With just such a minimally invasive surgery, the early tumor in the bladder can be completely removed. However, if the bladder tumor has invaded the bladder muscle layer, radical cystectomy plus pelvic lymph node dissection is required. When a solid tumor is completely removed together with the bladder and assisted by lymph node dissection, in a sense, radical treatment has been completed.

In addition, we have carefully analyzed and studied the metastatic pathways of bladder cancer. The results show that the metastatic "pathway" of bladder cancer generally first metastasizes to the pelvic lymph nodes. Therefore, whether it is an early-stage patient or a mid- to late-stage patient, in order to block the "pathway" of tumor recurrence and metastasis to the greatest extent, we will give patients a wider range of lymph node dissection during surgery to ensure that patients achieve the highest cure rate.

Even if some patients have metastasis at the time of initial diagnosis, the treatment effect may not necessarily be very bad. Chemotherapy is a common treatment for patients with metastatic bladder cancer or locally advanced bladder cancer that cannot be removed by surgery. About 20% of bladder cancer patients can temporarily eliminate the tumor through chemotherapy, and about 50% of patients have tumor shrinkage after chemotherapy. There is also a kind of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which can be used for patients before surgery. When the patient's body is in a better condition, a small dose of chemotherapy is first performed to help control the growth rate of bladder cancer, thereby creating opportunities for subsequent surgical treatment. Preoperative chemotherapy can control or kill possible tiny metastatic lesions in the body, thereby improving the treatment effect.

At present, bladder cancer treatment advocates a multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment model. Single-soldier combat is no longer able to meet clinical treatment requirements. Patients with early non-muscle invasive disease can be treated with intravesical chemotherapy or immunotherapy after surgery; radical surgery or radical radiotherapy combined with systemic chemotherapy before and after surgery, etc., will greatly improve the treatment effect of patients, increase the cure rate of bladder cancer, and prolong the overall survival of patients.

Therefore, even if you unfortunately suffer from bladder cancer, instead of being depressed and giving up on yourself, it is better to be optimistic, actively and bravely cooperate with the doctor's treatment, so as to achieve the best treatment effect.