[Ionizing radiation and bladder cancer]

A retrospective analysis of 160 cases of bladder tumors in females revealed that in 9 of these cases cancer in the bladder arose 1 to 22 years after radiation for uterine and breast cancer. This secondary tumor manifested in 2 females as dysuria, in one of them transition cell cancer of the bladder followed Brunno's cystitis 2 years after the cystitis diagnosis. The other patients had macrohematuria. Being a frequent complication of radiotherapy of pelvic cancer, dysuria and macrohematuria should not be considered as a sign of radiation-induced cystitis. Such patients should be carefully followed up with annual microscopic and cytological examinations of residual urine and cystoscopic control.