Invasive bladder cancer in women

A total of 84 radical cystectomies were performed for invasive bladder cancer in 67 men (79.8%) and 17 women (20.2%). The present study investigated the possible sex-dependent differences in the pattern of invasive bladder cancer. More than 40% of the women presented lower urinary tract syndrome alone or with haematuria, giving a clinical picture similar to acute cystitis. This caused an average time-lag in diagnosis of 18.5 months in the women and 8 months in the men. There was a higher frequency of non-transitional cell carcinoma in the women (17.6%) than in the men (2.9%). We found statistically significant differences (p < 0.005) in tumor grade: 35.2% of the women had low grade tumors, compared to 7.4% of the men. However, no significant differences in staging or survival rate were found when comparing the two sexes. This leads us to believe that bladder cancer is less aggressive in women.