[Occupationally conditioned bladder cancer--are the patients identified?]

A minor percentage of bladder cancer cases in Denmark are caused by occupational exposure to carcinogens. The disease is therefore also present on the National Board of Industrial Injuries' list of occupational diseases, and reporting of these is compulsory for Danish physicians. In spite of this, only very few cases are reported annually. The aim of this study was to examine whether sufficiently detailed information on occupational exposure was obtained from the patient at the time of diagnosis, and if this presumed lack of information could be the reason for the possible low number of reporting.

We have examined 82 medical records from bladder cancer patients admitted or treated at Herlev University Hospital in the period from 01.01 2002 to 06.16 2004. General information, including information on occupation, was noted and examined.

48 charts lacked occupational history or had an insufficient degree of information so that a possible occupational disease could not be excluded. In the remaining 34 medical records, there were four patients with a positive exposure history which should, therefore, have been reported. There was no information in the medical records as to whether this had been done.

Medical records of many bladder cancer patients lack sufficient information on occupational exposure. The four cases that should have been reported furthermore suggest that the physicians need to be educated on the known exposures and on how to report a patient with a positive exposure history. This could be a considerable reason for the few annually reported cases.