Bladder Cancer Staging

Bladder cancer is a common disease. It is a malignant tumor. Once the disease is diagnosed, it will cause a great blow to the patient's physical and mental health. The whole family will be overshadowed. Many people don’t know what to do. However, even if you are diagnosed with cancer, you must be able to actively fight the disease. I believe that cancer will always be defeated. Today we will talk about the staging of bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer is a malignant tumor. The occurrence of this disease will have a great impact on patients. Some people will be devastated by such a disease and have no confidence in treatment or future life. Today we will look at the staging of bladder cancer, which will also help control the disease.

Classification

The main cell type of bladder cancer is transitional epithelial carcinoma (also known as urothelial carcinoma), accounting for about 90%. Rare types include glandular carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, but both are highly malignant and require more aggressive treatment.

Based on the cell morphology of bladder cancer, transitional cell carcinoma is usually divided into grades I, II, and III. The higher the grade, the more malignant the tumor is, the more likely the tumor is to metastasize and spread, and the worse the prognosis. However, the early or late stage of the tumor is more closely related to prognosis.

Staging

The normal bladder wall is divided into three layers: the inner layer is the mucosal layer, and the middle layer is the muscle layer (composed of the detrusor muscles interwoven into a network, which is the power source of urination). The outermost layer is a very thin membrane layer. Bladder cancer is caused by the malignant transformation of the transitional epithelium on the surface of the mucosal layer, so the staging of bladder cancer is determined by which layer of the bladder wall the tumor cells invade. If the tumor is confined to the mucosal layer, it is superficial bladder cancer (the professional term is non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer); if the tumor has infiltrated the muscle layer or serosa, it is called invasive bladder cancer (the professional term is muscle-invasive bladder cancer); if the tumor has metastasized to other places, it becomes metastatic bladder cancer.

After bladder cancer surgery, the specimens removed will be subjected to pathological section examination, which can enable accurate pathological staging. The clinical staging of bladder cancer is quite different from the pathological staging, so the treatment plan formulated before surgery often needs to be revised according to the pathological staging after surgery.

Bladder cancer has become a disease that poses a serious threat to our lives and health. More and more people are suffering from this disease. Everyone should understand the staging of bladder cancer so that targeted methods can be adopted during treatment, especially surgical treatment, so that a plan that suits them can be developed.