Bladder cancer survivors speak out on ‘most common’ symptom they all experienced before diagnosis
Bladder cancer survivors have spoken out on the 'most common' symptom they all experienced before eventually receiving their diagnosis.
According to Cancer Research, there are around 10,500 new bladder cancer cases in the UK every year - a figure which works out to be 29 every single day.
It's also the 11th most common cancer in the UK, accounting for three percent of all new cancer cases and, for women, it's the 17th most common cancer, whilst for men it's the 7th.
Now, while a person’s risk of developing cancer depends on many factors - including age, genetics, and exposure to risk factors (including some potentially avoidable lifestyle factors) - as many as 49 percent of bladder cancer cases in the UK are preventable.
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So, it's important to be in the know about the symptoms of such a disease so you can be sure to seek medical help if you notice any warning signs.
The most common symptom of bladder cancer
The NHS outlines that the main symptom of bladder cancer is blood in your urine - something which survivors have spoken out about to warn others to take such a symptom seriously should they experience it themselves too.
Back in 2018, the likes of Arthur Hamberger, M.D., noticed some blood in his urine, describing the colour as 'the slightest shade of pink you can imagine'.
The symptom itself only happened once but, as a doctor and three-time cancer survivor, he knew not to ignore it and soon contacted a urologist and underwent a CT urogram, which is a scan of the urinary tract to check for disease.
"It showed I had a fairly large tumour in my bladder and a mass in my pancreas," Arthur, who was 73 at the time of his bladder cancer diagnosis, recalled to MD Anderson Cancer Center.
It's a good thing that Arthur, who is now a six-time cancer survivor, didn’t ignore that early symptom of bladder cancer, as his doctor was able to remove his tumour while keeping his bladder intact. Additionally, he also had surgery to remove the pancreatic cancer.
'It was just a little blood'
"If it were not for that little bit of blood in my urine, they would have never found the tumour in my pancreas," he explained.
Likewise, Margo Wickersham also noticed blood in her urine but, for her, it happened one morning, then the next, and then never again.
"It was just a little blood, and it was pink, not red," she shared. "But I was a 57-year-old woman and post-menopausal, so there were not a lot of reasons to explain it."
Upon doing a urine sample, which ruled out a urinary tract infection (UTI), Margo decided to see a urologist after a nurse practitioner at her obstetrician’s office said: "We’ll keep an eye on it."
After having a cystoscopy - a procedure where a thin tube with a camera (cystoscope) is inserted into the urethra and bladder to examine them - done, it was revealed that she had a small tumour in her bladder.
Margo was then informed that she had highly aggressive stage 1 bladder cancer with MD Anderson later confirming the diagnosis while also uncovering plasmacytoid cancer, an extremely rare type of bladder cancer known to come back.
"You can’t always go by how you feel. I felt completely fine, but I had blood in my urine," explained Margo. "If your urine has blood in it, that’s a red flag. See a doctor.”
Other symptoms of bladder cancer
While blood in your urine is the 'most common' symptom of bladder cancer, it's important to note that other symptoms include:
- Pain, burning, stinging or itching when you pee
- Getting lots of urinary tract infections
- Needing to pee more often
- Needing to pee very suddenly
- Losing your appetite and losing weight without trying to
- Pain in your back and lower tummy
- Aching, pain or tenderness in your bones
- Feeling very tired for no reason and feeling generally unwell
Find out more about bladder cancer on the official NHS website here.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.
Rhiannon Ingle