Firefighters and Bladder Cancer Risk

The well known major risk factors for developing bladder cancer are prolonged exposure to certain environmental pollutants and chemicals.

As the body absorbs carcinogenic chemicals, such as cigarette smoke, the chemicals are transferred to the blood, filtered out by the kidneys and expelled from the body through the urine.

Greater concentrations of chemicals in the urine can damage the endothelial lining of the bladder and increase a patient’s odds of developing transitional cell carcinoma (TCC).

One group of people that are regularly exposed to smoke and chemical fumes are firefighters – more than any other group.

Now, University of California –San Francisco reported at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA), research findings suggesting that firefighters may be at an increased risk of developing transitional cell carcinoma (TCC or bladder cancer).

Thereby, they said that firefighters (current and retired) must be considered for annual screening for bladder cancer, though no guidelines exist for the screening of TCC.

Find more details from Medical News Today.