5 risk factors to know

Each year, between 13,000 and 20,000 new people are affected by bladder cancer in France, according to the French Urology Association (AFU). The vast majority of cases of this cancer can be healed, according to the Vidalbut they have a strong tendency to repeat. With age, the risk of developing this disease increases. But there are other factors which, for some, are avoidable.

Tobacco, the first preventable risk factor in bladder cancer

A smoker has 5.5 times more likely to be the victim of bladder cancer than a non-smoker, according to the Foundation for cancer research. Tobacco is the main preventable risk factor for this disease. And this is all the more important if the patient has started to smoke young, and his consumption is high. Currently, in France, smoking would be responsible for 53 % of cases of malignant tumor in the bladder in men and 39 % in women, the AFU says.

Another large preventable risk factor: professional exposure to a carcinogenic product. Between 5 % and 25 % of bladder cancers would be linked to humans. Aromatic amines, for example, are chemical compounds used in the tar, tire or textile industry. Protective and prevention measures must be implemented by companies to limit or even completely avoid exposure to this type of substances.

Other substances are also problematic: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These chemical compounds – results of the incomplete combustion of various organic matter, as in tobacco smoke or vehicle exhaust gases – are present in the tar, tire or textile industry. Health insurance Specifies that smoking while being exposed to these chemicals increases the risk of developing this type of tumor.

“Bladder cancers may appear decades after exposure to these substancesunderlines the Vidal. As a result, bladder cancer can be recognized as an occupational disease in, for example, heating engineers, bitchholes, people who have worked in the textile industry, that of rubber or that of aluminum, as well as in painters in building in building.”

Bladder cancer: some drug treatments increase the risk

In addition to these avoidable risk factors, there are those known as infectious. Urinary bilharzia is a parasitic disease, mainly contracted in West Africa or Egypt. Schistosomes, flat lines (moats) which are originally, are known to promote the development of certain bladder tumors.

Finally, taking certain drug treatments and radiotherapy are also suspected of playing a role in the occurrence of bladder cancer. These include:

• Phoenacetine (when it is chronically taken to treat pain);
• Some chemotherapy drugs such as cyclophosphamide;
• Basin radiotherapy.