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Curative treatment for bladder cancer 'less likely for the aged'

Thursday 18th April 2013
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    A "very worrying, conservative approach" to treating older patients with bladder cancer has been revealed by new research.

    A study undertaken by the University of Sheffield and funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research showed that 52 per cent of sufferers under the age of 60 were given potentially curative treatments, which could involve surgery and radiotherapy.

    This is compared to just 34 per cent of patients in their 70s and 12 per cent of those over the age of 80.

    The report was published in the British Journal of Cancer and looked at the records of around 3,300 bladder cancer patients who were diagnosed in Sheffield between 1994 and 2009.

    The researchers found that patients over the age of 70 were more likely to die from their illness than their younger counterparts. It was concluded that this was because they had a higher proportion of more aggressive tumours, and therefore were not given the more radical and potentially life-saving treatments.

    Mr James Catto, author of the study and a consultant urological surgeon at the University of Sheffield, said: "Even though it appears that older patients are more likely to have aggressive tumours, our findings suggest that not enough older patients are being offered treatments that could increase their chance of survival.

    "What's very worrying is this conservative approach to treating older patients appears to be affecting the life expectancy of this group, something that doctors must work hard to combat."

    According to the NHS, the average age of diagnosis for bladder cancer is 68 years old. Rates are four-times higher in men than they are in females, which could be put down to a higher incidence of smoking and occupational exposure.

    The most common type of bladder cancer is non-muscle invasive, which accounts for 70 per cent of cases and is the least serious. However, muscle invasive bladder cancer occurs when cancerous cells spread beyond the lining of the organ and there is a higher chance of death through metastasising into other parts of the body.

    Written by Martin Lambert

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