The Bladder is a hollow
structure (like a balloon) that sits in your pelvis and stores
urine that it collects from your kidneys. When your
bladder is full urine is expelled through the ureters.
Symptoms: The sudden appearance of blood
in your urine (known as Haematuria) without any cause can be a
symptom of Bladder cancer. The urine can appear anywhere
from brown to deep red - depending on the volume of blood.
There usually isn't any pain unless the blood forms clots along
the dispelling channels.
Other reasons for blood: If blood
suddenly appears it may not necessarily be because you have
cancer. There are a lot of other conditions that cause
this including (but not limited to) to infection and kidney
stones.
Diagnosis: If you detect blood in your
urine - make an appointment to see your doctor. Your
doctor will prescribe a blood test to check for infection and
perform other tests such as checking your Rectum and vagina for
women. A cytoscope may be used to "go inside" and locate growing
tumours. Your doctor may use the cytoscope to obtain a
biopsy (sample of the growth).
Bladder Cancer: Superficial bladder
cancers (most common type) are polyps growing on the inside
lining of the bladder. Your doctor may use a term
"Papillary", "Papillomas" or "Bladder Warts" to describe it.
They can occur individually or as a group.
Treatment: Bladder cancer tumors can be
removed by cutting them and cauterizing the location of removal.
Cauterizing is a method of "burning" the location to prevent
bleeding. The procedure can be very simple and involve the
use of a cytoscope.
