Around 67,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with bladder cancer, the fourth most common cancer in men, each year. Smoking causes over 50 percent of all bladder cancer, with men three times more likely to develop the disease than women, the Merck Manual states. Treatment often consists of surgical removal but also includes non-surgical treatments. Treatment without surgery carries a 5-year survival prognosis of 20 to 40 percent.
Radiation
Two types of radiation therapy can treat bladder cancer: external and internal. External radiation aims high-energy radiation beams at the tumor using a machine outside the body, while internal radiation treatment implants radiation-releasing needles, catheters or seeds inside the body near the tumor. Internal radiation, called brachytherapy, is used less commonly to treat bladder cancer.
Side effects of radiation treatment include fatigue, skin irritation, loss of pubic hair, bladder irritation with frequent urination or bowel irritation, diarrhea, abdominal cramping and rectal pressure, the University of California Los Angeles reports. Vaginal dryness and impotence may also occur. Radiation therapy normally takes five to seven weeks of treatment to complete. Radiation may be used to shrink a tumor before surgery or to kill left-over cancer cells after surgery, MayoClinic.com states.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses toxic medications to destroy rapidly growing cells like cancer cells. Chemotherapy can be taken by mouth, injected into a vein or injected directly into the bladder, a technique called intravesical chemotherapy. Intravesical treatment with valrubicin may be used to treat early bladder to avoid surgery, Healthcommunities.com states. Metastasis, or spread of the cancer cells to areas outside the bladder, requires chemotherapy. Bladder cancer usually requires infusion of two or more chemotherapy drugs used in combination, according to MayoClinic.com. Chemotherapy can cause hair loss, nausea, appetite loss, weakness, fatigue, bladder irritation, anemia, abdominal pain or infection, Healthcommunities.com reports.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy, also called biologic therapy, boosts the patient's immune system to fight bladder cancer. Biologic therapy drugs, given directly into the bladder, include Bacille Calmette-Guerin, or BCG, a bacteria also used in tuberculosis vaccines, MayoClinic.com explains. BCH can cause flu-like symptoms, bladder irritation and blood in the urine. A synthetic form of interferon, a protein manufactured by the immune system to fight infection, called interferon alpha, can be used alone or in conjunction with BCG. Interferon alpha also can cause flu-like symptoms. Biologic therapy medications are usually given after surgery to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.
