Prophylaxis
Bladder cancer can be indirectly prevented by refraining from smoking cigarettes in any case (here, care should also be taken to expose oneself to the danger of passive smoking as rarely as possible). Increased contact with the above-mentioned chemicals, whose carcinogenic effect has been proven, should also be avoided at all costs. It should also be noted that as mentioned above, certain cytostatic drugs (drugs of choice for cancer) such as cyclophosphamide carry a risk of bladder cancer.
Furthermore, when travelling to subtropical areas, bathing in lakes and rivers should be avoided, as this avoids the risk of bilharzia. In addition, illnesses within the range of the discharging urinary tract, which are harmless as such – like e.g. a bladder inflammation – should be well treated. A chronic cystitis increases the risk of developing bladder cancer.
The prognosis in the case of a cancer of the bladder illness depends crucially on how far the cancer illness is already advanced when becoming known. Best healing chances exist in the case of a superficial bladder cancer. However, these also have the highest probability of the above-mentioned recurrence (recurrence).
In about half of all cases of patients whose superficial bladder carcinoma is removed by transurethral resection, the same recurrence occurs again within five years. This makes regular follow-ups after transurethral resection necessary. In the case of infiltrating bladder carcinomas that require a complete removal of the bladder (see above), the probability of survival after surgery is about 80% for the next five years.
If the cancer is diagnosed at a late stage, so that it has already affected adjacent lymph nodes or even other organs, both the chances of recovery and the life expectancy of the affected person decrease. If the bladder has been completely removed, this can reduce the patient’s ability to work by 80 to 90%. With regard to the description of the disease bladder cancer in the history of medicine, it can be said that the connection between bladder cancer and the carcinogenic aniline from the industry was already recorded in 1895 by the German surgeon Ludwig Rehn.
Also the method to build a new bladder from parts of the human intestine is older than often assumed. It was already developed by US surgeons in the 1950s.
