Will bladder cancer be inherited to the next generation?

Some bladder cancer patients who are planning to have children are worried that their disease will be passed on to the next generation. In fact, is bladder cancer really hereditary? What are the clinical manifestations of bladder cancer? Let me introduce to you below.

Individuals who have a parent or sibling with bladder cancer are at an increased risk of developing bladder cancer themselves. Another known risk factor for bladder cancer is smoking. Although both genetic and environmental factors play a role in bladder cancer, little is known about the family incidence of bladder cancer.

In the study, scientists reviewed the incidence records of more than 2,000 offspring of bladder cancer patients and found that the brothers of male patients who developed cancer before the age of 45 had the highest risk of the disease, which was 7 times that of normal male brothers.

Sons of parents with bladder cancer have a 35 percent higher risk of developing bladder cancer than offspring of parents without bladder cancer. Daughters of parents with bladder cancer have a 2-fold higher risk of developing bladder cancer than daughters of parents without bladder cancer. Overall, individuals with a sibling with bladder cancer have a 3-fold higher risk of developing bladder cancer than individuals with siblings without bladder cancer. Bladder cancer is 3 to 4 times more common in men than in women, and is most common in older men. Experts believe that the high incidence in men may be due to a cancer-related gene on the X chromosome. Because men have only one X chromosome, they are more susceptible to mutations on the X chromosome than women who carry two X chromosomes.

Regarding the clinical manifestations of bladder cancer, about 90% of bladder cancer patients have hematuria as their initial clinical manifestation, which is usually painless, intermittent, visible throughout the entire process, and sometimes microscopic hematuria. Hematuria may only occur once or last for 1 to several days, and may subside or stop on its own. Sometimes the coincidence of taking medication and hematuria stopping on its own often gives the patient the illusion of "recovery". Some patients may have hematuria again after a certain period of time. The staining of hematuria ranges from light red to dark brown, often dark red, and some patients describe it as meat washing water or tea water.