ABSTRACT
Cancer of the bladder is the fourth most common cancer in men in the USA, ranking behind only prostate cancer, cancers of the lung and bronchus, and colon and rectal cancers in incidence. 1 Ironically, it may also be one of the most preventable cancers, owing to the well-documented, strong etiologic influence of smoking and, to a lesser extent, of exposure to some industrial chemicals. Bladder cancer has a broad range of behavior, which dictates different treatments and offers far different prognoses. Superficial bladder cancer is almost an entirely different disease from invasive bladder cancer. As our understanding of this disease evolves, there are increasing opportunities to tailor our treatments based on risk of progression. The future is even brighter, because laboratory research has already made great strides in dissecting molecular pathways and finding novel therapeutic targets for this cancer. We present herein a brief overview of bladder cancer.
