Bladder Tumors in Women, What about Our Context?

Bladder cancer ranks 7th among all cancers, with smoking as the main risk. It is the second urologic cancer after prostate cancer. Their incidence is increasing by about 1% per year, with a greater incidence in women than in men. In nearly 70% of cases, bladder cancer is of the non-muscle-infiltrating type. Although they are less frequent in women, they present some very particular characteristics.

Objective: To analyze and describe the epidemiological, clinical, anatomopathological, and therapeutic manifestations in women. Patients and methods: Thirty-four (34) files were retrospectively analyzed over 5 years (March 2011 and December 2015).

Results: The mean age was 58.1 years with a mean delay of consultation of 14 months. Hematuria was the most frequent symptom (95%). Non-infiltrating tumors were in the majority (in 20 cases), followed by infiltrating tumors (14 cases), urothelial carcinoma was the only histological type observed. Eighteen(18) patients had shown improvement from BCG instillations and anterior pelvectomy had been performed in 2 cases, and 6 cases respectively for NIMV and IMV. Sexual life was disrupted in 37.5% and 33.33% of cases of Bricker and neovessia. The recurrence and progression rates were 25 and 15% respectively.

Conclusion: Bladder tumors in women are less frequent, their treatment is based either on immunotherapy or surgery or multimodal. Strict surveillance is mandatory because the evolution of these tumors is unpredictable.