New research shows that women with bladder cancer are more likely to die of the disease than men, delegates at the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia’s Annual Scientific Meeting heard on 16 November 2007.
 
In one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, the Cancer Institute NSW has analysed bladder cancer cases in New South Wales from 1980 to 2003.
 
Senior Epidemiologist Elizabeth Tracey said that when looking at the survival of patients with bladder cancer, she found that men had better five year survival than women.
 
“We tried to see why this was happening, but when we controlled for age at diagnosis, extent of cancer at diagnosis, period of diagnosis, country of birth and coding differences – women continued to have significantly poorer survival with a 16 per cent greater likelihood of dying compared to men,” Ms Tracey said.
 
“We couldn’t identify an obvious reason for the difference. More research is needed to investigate issues such as whether women are receiving the same treatment as men and whether a history of urinary track infections - more common in women than in men - is a factor.”
 
Studies in the United Kingdom have produced similar differences in survival between men and women with bladder cancer.
 
More than 2200 Australians are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year, most of those are aged over 55, with men twice as likely to develop the disease.