Signs and Symptoms of Bladder Cancer
Medically reviewed by Oliver Eng, MD
While it is good to gain knowledge about the symptoms of bladder cancer, do not wait for them to worsen. See your healthcare provider for a proper diagnosis—early detection is key to curing the disease.
Frequent Symptoms
The most common first sign of bladder cancer is blood in the urine, although a variety of other problems with urination may also serve as signals.
Takeaway
It's important to understand that the early signs and symptoms of bladder cancer are often intermittent and not severe.
Blood in the Urine
Blood in the urine, or hematuria, in bladder cancer is usually painless, visible, and comes and goes. In fact, blood can be present and then disappear only to reappear days or weeks later.
In bladder cancer, blood is typically present throughout the urination process. This is a subtle clue that something may be wrong, but not a hard and fast rule.
However, sometimes blood in the urine is not visible to the naked eye. Rather, it is picked up microscopically—usually on a urine sample that was taken for another purpose in a healthcare provider's office.
According to American Family Physician, about 20 percent of people with visible blood in the urine have bladder cancer and about 2 to 5 percent of people with microscopic blood in the urine have bladder cancer.
It is important to understand that having blood in your urine does not necessarily mean you have bladder cancer. In fact, a decent percentage—about 9% to 18%—of healthy people have some blood in their urine. And, for most, the cause is not cancer.
Takeaway
It is important to see your healthcare provider and/or urologist if you have blood in your urine. While it could be nothing, it could also be a sign of an infection, a stone, kidney disease, or a cancer of the urinary tract system (bladder, prostate, or kidney). Again, early detection is vital.
Irritation When Urinating
One or more of these symptoms occur in people with bladder cancer:
Burning, pain, or discomfort when you urinate
Having to urinate more frequently than usual during the daytime and/or at night
Having an urge to urinate even when the bladder is not full
Losing urine involuntarily (incontinence)
Of course, these symptoms could be from other medical problems, like a urinary tract infection or an enlarged prostate in men. Regardless, get it checked out.
Obstruction When Urinating
If you feel like something is blocking your urine flow, it is also important to see your healthcare provider. Again, like irritative symptoms, this may be due to something else (like prostate enlargement), but get it evaluated for a proper diagnosis.
In general, obstructive symptoms are less common than irritative symptoms in bladder cancer. Examples include:
Experiencing hesitancy when urinating, like having trouble getting the urine released or noticing a weak and/or intermittent stream of urine
Feeling like you cannot get all the urine out of your bladder
Straining to urinate
Flank pain (pain in the side or mid back area) may occur if the tumor is blocking a ureter (one of two tubes in the body that transports urine from the kidney to the bladder)
Rare Symptoms
If your bladder cancer has spread to other parts of your body—referred to as metastasis—you may have symptoms of advanced disease. These include generalized symptoms like:
Unusual fatigue
Loss of appetite
Weakness
Unintended weight loss
Pain, too, can be an indication that the tumor has spread, especially pain in the flank area or the area above your pubic bone. Pain in the perineum (the area between the vagina/penis and the anus) may also occur with bladder cancer that has reached nearby tissues.
And, depending on where the bladder cancer has spread, you may develop symptoms specific to that area. For instance:
Bladder cancer that has spread to the lungs may cause someone to cough, have trouble breathing, or even cough up blood.
Bladder cancer that has spread to the kidneys may cause kidney functioning problems which can lead to swelling in the legs or feet.
Bone pain may develop if a person's cancer has spread to the bones.
Abdominal pain may occur if the cancer has spread to the liver or lymph nodes around the stomach.
Complications
Sometimes, a person has no symptoms of bladder cancer, but a healthcare provider detects an abnormality on a routine physical exam or a physical exam that was performed for another medical purpose.
For example, during an abdominal exam, enlarged lymph nodes or an enlarged liver could be a sign of cancer (a number of cancers, in fact, not just bladder). In advanced cases of bladder cancer, a mass in the pelvis may be felt. Also, an abnormal feeling prostate gland may occur if the bladder cancer has spread to the prostate.
When to See a Healthcare Provider
In most instances, the physical exam of a person with bladder cancer is normal and is only going to be abnormal in advanced cases. Usually, it is symptoms like blood in the urine or irritation when urinating that bring a person to the healthcare provider.
You may be surprised to learn that there is currently no standard screening test for bladder cancer. That being said, a healthcare provider may choose to screen a person who is at a very high risk of developing bladder cancer. This could include someone who has had a prolonged chemical exposure or someone with certain birth defects of the bladder.
It is also important to remember that screening is different from surveillance. Surveillance means that a person has already been diagnosed with bladder cancer and is now being monitored.
As of now, the decision to screen for bladder cancer is made on a case-by-case basis and is not very common. In other words, there are no standard guidelines for when or how to screen a person for bladder cancer. However, research on bladder cancer screening and detection is evolving.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the common signs and symptoms of bladder cancer?
The symptoms of bladder cancer are often non-specific and can be confused with other conditions affecting the reproductive or urinary tract. The most common include:
Blood in urine
Difficulty urinating or a weak urine stream
Feeling as if you need to urinate even when your bladder is empty
What are the first signs of bladder cancer?
The first sign of bladder cancer is often hematuria (blood in urine). This can occur without other symptoms and may be present one day and absent the next. Even so, the reappearance of hematuria—even weeks or months later—should be a red flag that bladder cancer may be involved.
When do symptoms of bladder cancer usually start?
The symptoms of bladder cancer can start quite early, although they may be confused for less serious conditions like a urinary tract infection or an enlarged prostate. Even so, the vast majority of bladder cancers (roughly 85%) are diagnosed during the early stages, often when unexplained hematuria is investigated.
What are the signs of advanced bladder cancer?
Advanced bladder cancer is characterized by worsening urinary problems along with systemic symptoms affecting the body as a whole. These include:
Chronic fatigue
Lower back pain to one side
Loss of appetite
Unintended weight loss
Inability to urinate
Bone pain (a common site of metastasis)
Do symptoms of bladder cancer differ in females and males?
The symptoms are largely the same, but females tend to be diagnosed later than males because blood in urine is sometimes mistaken for menstruation. The same applies to pelvic pain, which females will sometimes attribute to premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
How do the signs of bladder cancer and kidney cancer differ?
Many of the signs of bladder cancer and kidney cancer are the same. But, because kidney cancer occurs upstream from the bladder, any pain tends to be located further up the back to one side. Kidney cancer may also be felt as a lump on the back or side, something that generally does not occur with bladder cancer.
Read Next: Causes and Risk Factors of Bladder Cancer
Read the original article on Verywell Health.
