The association between tobacco and lung cancer is well known. The one with bladder cancer much less, even if it is also obvious: “Carcinogenic products that are inhaled are eliminated in the urine. And they are stored for long hours in contact with the bladder ”explains Professor Yann Neuzillet, secretary general of the French Urology Association.
For a long time, men declared three times more bladder cancers than women. The ratio has switched to two for one, and the percentage of women affected increases by 1 % per year. “They are often diagnosed while cancer is more advanced,” deplore Professor Neuzillet. The alert sign which must trigger a visit to a urologist is indeed the presence of blood in the urine. More often confused with simple cystitis in women.
A bad vital prognosis
The number of annual cases of this cancer diagnosed on average at 70 years varies from 13,000 to 20,000, according to estimates. “Due to ambiguity. Tumors who have not yet touched the muscle are not always considered cancers when they are. »»
For three years, immunotherapy and immunotherapy treatments associated with antibodies have “Divided by two the risk of dying of metastatic cancer”recalls Dr. Benjamin Pradère, urologist in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne). But the vital prognosis for advanced cancer remains bad.
As with other cancers, an earlier immunotherapy treatment (Sasanlimab), in addition to the standard treatment (with the BCG bacteria which stimulates the immune system), slows down the progress of cancers at the still superficial stage. “We hope for an authorization in France around June » , underlines Professor Neuzillet.
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