Bladder cancer is the fourth and eighth most common cancer in men and women in the United States, respectively. Bladder cancer afflicts about 60,000 Americans annually. Bladder cancer is quite common in the U.S., representing about 6 percent of all new cancer cases among men and 2 percent among women. While most people know that smoking can cause lung cancer, few know that it is a major risk factor for bladder cancer. This condition affected 68,000 people in 2008 in the United States and killed 14,000, according to the National Cancer Institute. It is more likely to affect men.

Flavonoids and bladder Cancer
Flavonoid phytochemicals are being studied for both prevent ion and therapy of various human malignancies including bladder cancer. One such naturally occurring flavonoid is silibinin isolated from milk thistle. Cigarette smoking is confirmed as a risk factor for bladder cancer.

Foods and supplements for bladder cancer
Green Tea Extract may interfere with a process that helps early bladder cancer to spread throughout the body. The findings bolster ongoing studies into green tea extract as a cancer treatment -- and may give green tea drinkers more reason to savor every cup. The investigators found that when they exposed human bladder cells to both a cancer-causing chemical and green tea extract, the extract interfered with a particular process by which early cancer cells become invasive and spread throughout body tissue. This process involves the "remodeling" of actin, a structural protein in cells that is essential for cell movement. Actin remodeling allows cancer cells to move and invade nearby healthy tissue. Based on the new findings, green tea extract may get in the way of this process by activating a protein known as Rho, which helps regulate actin's organization in cells and has been implicated in tumor development and progression.
   Eating broccoli may help prevent or slow the spread of bladder cancer. Working in the laboratory, U.S. researchers found that certain compounds in broccoli appear to interfere with bladder cancer cells -- especially aggressive cells that tend to spread quickly around the body. These results are very preliminary, and it's too early to determine, for instance, how much broccoli people need to eat to get this benefit. Previous research has shown that men who eat broccoli regularly are less likely to develop bladder cancer, which kills more than 13,000 Americans each year. Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables contain substances that morph into isothiocyanates, which research suggests may fight cancer. Glucosinolates in broccoli -- when chopped, chewed and digested -- turn into compounds called isothiocyanates that are believed to help fight bladder cancer. Whether a Broccoli Sprouts supplement is as well as eating the vegetable is not clear at this time.
   Substances found in cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, may help protect people from bladder cancer, especially if eaten raw. People who consumed the most of these substances, called isothiocyanates (ITCs), had a lower risk of the disease than those who consumed the least. Studies in animals have found ITCs prevent tumor growth, while epidemiological studies suggest they may lower lung and colon cancer risk. International Journal of Cancer, 2007.

Diets rich in selenium reduce the risk.

Grape seed extract with proanthocyanidins
J Cancer. 2012. Additively enhanced antiproliferative effect of interferon combined with proanthocyanidin on bladder cancer cells. Our findings support the notion that combination of IFN-α(2b) and grape seed extract is capable of additively enhancing antiproliferative effect on T24 cells with a G(1) cell cycle arrest, implying an adjuvant therapeutic modality for superficial bladder cancer.

Mistletoe extract
After surgery for superficial bladder cancer, treatment with a mistletoe extract appears to be effective at reducing tumor recurrence. Mistletoe extracts have been shown to act favorably on proteins that affect cancer and have been widely used for many years as alternative therapy in patients with malignancies. In the current study, 30 patients with superficial bladder carcinoma received six weekly instillations of a standardized water-based mistletoe extract beginning about 4 weeks after surgery. The treatment was well tolerated at all concentrations and there were no reports of side effects. At 12 months, nine tumors had recurred. In the 24 patients with so-called pTa G2 and pT1 G2 tumors, the recurrence rate was 33 percent, comparable to the recurrence rate in similar historical controls treated with BCG, the investigators point out.

Bladder cancer symptom
The symptoms for bladder cancer are not specific. Many other diseases, including inflammatory conditions, involving the bladder and kidney may cause similar symptoms. However, early detection is important in curing bladder cancer. The most common first symptom of bladder cancer is blood in the urine called hematuria, either visible or microscopic. Gross hematuria describes urine that appears red or brown and can be seen with the naked eye. Microscopic hematuria means the red blood cells are visible if a urine sample is examined under a microscope. Other symptoms and signs of of bladder cancer include pain and burning on urination, a sense of incomplete emptying of the bladder after urination and having to urinate more frequently or at shorter intervals. These symptoms could also indicate problems (less serious) other than bladder cancer such as an infection.

Bladder Cancer Urine test
A urine test can detect bladder cancer early and may be especially useful for smokers and others prone to the disease. The test for the enzyme telomerase in urine was found to be accurate 90 percent of the time in men, after the cancer diagnoses were confirmed with standard invasive examinations of the bladder and urinary tract. The test also detected the disease in early stages.

Cause of Bladder Cancer
Marijuana has been shown to potentially cause bladder cancer if used in high doses on a regular basis. Studies have found higher rates among people in various occupations, including hairdressers, textile workers, truck drivers and workers in the rubber, leather and chemical industries. It's thought that long-term chemical exposures are to blame. Chlorinated water exposure through drinking, swimming pools or baths can increase the risk for bladder cancer.
   When bladder cancer occurs in patients previously diagnosed with prostate cancer, it tends to be of higher grade among patients who were treated with radiation compared to those not treated with radiation.
   EU regulators said in July 2006 they would ban 22 substances from use in hair dyes in the European Union. The EU's Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP) said at the end of 2002 that there was epidemiological evidence indicating that the regular and long-term use of hair dyes by women may be associated with the development of bladder cancer. The SCCP called for an overall safety assessment strategy for hair dyes including testing hair dye cosmetic ingredients for their potential genotoxicity or mutagenicity. The European Commission therefore asked hair dye producers to prove the substances they used did not pose bladder cancer risk or other health risk and the industry submitted such safety files on 115 substances in use. The ban by the Commission, the EU's executive, concerns 22 hair dye substances for which industry has not submitted any safety files.
   Gonorrhea, a common sexually transmitted infection, can increase the risk of bladder cancer in men.
   Women who are relatively young when they go through menopause seem to be at increased risk of developing bladder cancer.
   Nitrosamines are chemical compounds which are cancer causing. The same chemicals that paint your hot dogs pink and keep botulism out of your bologna could also raise your risk. Cancer, 2010.

Bladder Cancer, Smoking, and Hormones
Menopausal status as well as age at menopause may modify the risk of women developing bladder cancer. The risk in men is greater than that in women. Hormonal factors may be involved because gender differences in cigarette smoking patterns, occupational exposures and other differences in known risk factor distributions cannot explain the excess bladder cancer observed for males. There is a significant increase in bladder cancer risk with earlier menopause (age 45 years or less) compared with later menopause (age 50 years or more). The drop in estrogen levels with menopause has been associated with bladder dysfunction and frequent urinary tract infections. It may be that women who experience early menopause are at an increased risk of bladder cancer because they have recurrent urinary tract infections and concurrent inflammation starting at an earlier age. Because inflammation and cigarette smoking are likely to act together to increase risk, this hypothesis would also explain the strong interaction with smoking. Source: American Journal of Epidemiology, 2006.

Medical and surgical treatment
April 2009 - Patients who get more intensive treatment for early bladder cancer do not improve any better than patients who get less treatment. Medicare spent more than twice as much on the intensively managed patients without improving their survival rates. Dr. Brent Hollenbeck of the University of Michigan used federal data on 20,700 Medicare patients diagnosed with early bladder cancer between 1992 and 2002 by different doctors, mostly urologists. Treatment can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and infusion of the bacteria used to vaccinate against tuberculosis. The doctors in the group that gave most care also spent the most -- $7,000 on average. Those who gave the least care billed only $2,800 on average. "Simply put, urologists who treat aggressively early are likely to provide aggressive treatment in all aspects of bladder cancer care, and vice versa," Dr. Brent Hollenbeck and his fellow researchers wrote. "More intensive treatment was not associated with better overall survival. Patients who underwent more intensive early treatment were more likely to undergo major interventions later," they added. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, April 2009.

Emails
My Brother-in-law has Stage IV bladder cancer. I would like to get more information about natural treatment. Currently he is under treatment at Kaiser – Walnut Creek, California.

In 2008  my urologist ,removed a tumor via laser, prognosis was transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder, grade 3. I will be 89 years of age in November 2010. The tumor which was relatively small was in a diverticular of which I have three of in my bladderMarch, 2009, first intravesical treatment with mitomycin c, April 2009 second intravesical treatment with mitomyin c May, 2009, third intravesical treatment with mitiomycin c, July, 2009, fourth, intravesical treatment with mitiomycin c, August 2009,fifth intravesical treatment with mitomycin c, October, 2009 sixth, intravesical treatment with mitio Asmycin c, I experienced a great deal of fatigue and some irritation during and after the therapy. My urologist claimed that the chemotherapy was not that invasive. I feel differently. I can only play nine holes of golf because fatigue sets in fast. I get very tired just doing things around the house. I do 20 minutes on the NordicTrack four times a week plus other exercises. I quit smoking 25 years ago. No further treatments until February of 2010 at which time I received another treatment and experienced much irritation in the bladder which was verified by a cystoscope examination. No further chemo has been administered since then. Scope examination in May revealed no evidence of a tumor but the he recommended additional treatment commencing in August, I have some reservations about doing so, especially after reading her book and reading the opinions of so many doctors she consulted in the book. My diet is exceptionally good and has been for many years, 80 ounces of water a day, juicing three times a week, salmon or other fish most of the time, with plenty of vegetables. breakfast consists of oatmeal with raw wheat germ and flax with 4 fresh fruits. I do take a myriad of vitamins. I would really appreciate hearing from you , as I would like to prevent the re-occurrence of the tumor with out chemotherapy. I just started using sun chlorella hoping that additional supplements and a strict good diet would prevent the re-occurrence of the tumor.

Are Curcumin longa / Tumeric and Wasabi powder and Frankinsense useful, and if so, what would be the optimal amount to take and in what form?
   Studies are not available for us to know such details at this time.