Clinico-pathological Study of Bladder Cancer in a Tertiary Care Center of South India and Impact of Age, Gender, and Tobacco in Causing Bladder Cancer: A Single Center Experience

Introduction: Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most common urological malignancies. It is the fourth most common cancer in men and eighth most common malignancy in women of the western world. As per the Indian cancer registry, BC constitutes the ninth most common malignancy and accounts for an overall 3.9% of all cancer cases. Purpose: The purpose of this manuscript is to do a clinico-pathological study on the BCs and to assess the impact of smoking, age, gender, and adequacy of treatment on the final outcome of the disease. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective audit on patients with BCs. All patients with BCs, diagnosed and treated in our institution between 2011 and 2015 were included in our study. Results: A total of 156 patients were diagnosed and treated over a period of 4½-year from January 2011 to June 2015. Painless total hematuria was the most common presentation seen in 111 patients. BC has been predominantly a disease of elderly age group. High-grade cancers were found predominantly in patients above 60 years of age (n = 70), with a P = 0.04, while in patients <60 years of age, both high and low-grade cancers were of almost same incidence. The risk of tumor recurrence is considerably less in those who receive adjuvant Bacille Calmette-Guerin or mitomycin C therapy, and the difference between the two groups is statistically significant, with a P < 0.0001. Conclusion: The overall incidence of BC in India is on the rise. Tobacco has been a very strong predisposing factor for BC occurrence. A high index of clinical suspicion, as well as a thorough exploration of all possible epidemiological factors, will help the clinicians and epidemiologists in formulating a definitive disease control program.