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A high percentage of bladder cancers can be cured if they are found early. Once cancer spreads outside the bladder, it is much harder to treat. That’s why it’s important to first bring up any concerning symptoms to your primary care provider.
Together, Fred Hutch Cancer Center and UW Medicine offer a full range of options to find and treat bladder cancer at its earliest stage.
Take Charge of Your Health
Talk to your primary care provider if you have symptoms that you think may be bladder cancer. UW Medicine Primary Care can help you get started. Learn about Fred Hutch's relationship with UW Medicine.
Screening Tests for Bladder Cancer
There is no screening test for bladder cancer for people of average risk. Blood in the urine (hematuria) is usually the first sign. It may turn your urine pink or red. Sometimes, urine color is normal but blood is found when a urine test is done.
Usually, having blood in your urine doesn't mean you have bladder cancer. It’s more likely to be due to something else, such as an infection or noncancerous condition.
Bladder cancer can sometimes also cause changes in urination, such as having to go more often than usual, pain or burning during urination or having to get up to use the bathroom many times during the night. Many conditions can also cause these symptoms, however, so it’s important to determine the cause.
Diagnostic Tests for Bladder Cancer
Methods used to help diagnose bladder cancer and determine whether it has spread include:
- Microscopic urinalysis — testing your urine to help rule out infections and check for blood, sugar, bacteria or proteins.
- Urine cytology — testing your urine to help find cancer cells. This is often done along with fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) or protein tests.
- Physical exam — this includes an exam of your abdomen, back and rectum to feel for bumps that may be tumors. If you have a vagina, the exam also includes the vagina.
- Cystoscopy/ureteroscopy — putting a thin camera through your urethra to check your bladder and maybe your ureters. The doctor may also take a tissue sample (biopsy) to help tell the type and stage of the cancer.
- Blue-light cystoscopy with hexaminolevulinate HCl — makes bladder tumors glow bright pink in blue light. The glow helps your provider see and remove the cancer.
- Transurethral resection of a bladder tumor (TUR or TURBT) — taking out the tumor and samples from other parts of your bladder. This is done through your urethra. A pathologist can then check the type of cancer and how deep it is in the tissue.
- Molecular profiling — checking the make-up of your cancer. This allows doctors to choose the most effective treatments and find clinical trials that may be right for you.
- Imaging tests — such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, computed tomography (CT) scans, X-rays, ultrasounds and bone scans. These tests help your doctors tell if cancer has spread beyond your bladder.
If you have been diagnosed with muscle invasive or locally advanced bladder cancer or another urothelial cancer, we recommend getting a second opinion before choosing where you will be treated.
Fred Hutch has the region’s first Bladder Cancer Multispecialty Clinic. At this clinic, a team of physicians come together to plan care for people who have been diagnosed with invasive or advanced bladder or other urothelial cancers. During a single visit, you get a second opinion from an entire group of physicians. They include urologic oncologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, pathologists and radiologists.
You can talk with cancer experts who understand your disease and treatment options in greater depth than the general oncologists in your local community. We will share information with your local physicians based on your preferences and be a resource for you and them.
At Fred Hutch, we tailor your first appointment — and all your visits with us — to your unique situation. The plan for your first appointment will depend on if your cancer:
- Sits on or in the first lining of your bladder (non-muscle invasive, also called superficial or early-stage)
- Goes into the muscle wall of your bladder (muscle invasive)
- Has spread to distant parts of your body (metastatic)
Learn more about what to expect.
Fred Hutch researchers are always looking for better ways to treat bladder cancer. We are doing clinical trials of new drugs and drug combinations to treat different types of bladder tumors. Our scientists are also developing new methods to tell which tumors are likely to respond best to which treatments.
Learn more about bladder cancer research.