Can urinary bladder stone increase the risk of bladder cancer? Doctor answers
A urinary bladder stone, also referred to as bladder calculus, is a hard mass of minerals that accumulates in the bladder.
It happens when there is a buildup of urine in the bladder for a long time, leading to crystallisation of the chemicals in the urine. But can it lead to bladder cancer?
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Reddy Adapala, Department of Uro – oncology & Robotics, Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology Hyderabad, said, “Urinary bladder stones do increase the risk of developing bladder cancer. Irregular contour of the bladder stone causes significant irritation and inflammation of the urinary bladder.”
How urinary bladder leads to cancer?
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Reddy Adapala explained, “Constant and chronic irritation leads to few changes in the bladder inner lining, urothelium. Initial change is squamous metaplasia and if irritation continues for years together, the mutational change can happen at cellular level and will turn out to be a cancer.”
Untreated bladder stone can lead to squamous cell carcinoma:
“Most common cancer which can occur in patients with untreated bladder stone is squamous cell carcinoma. This pathological variant is way different from usually occurring urothelial bladder cancer. Squamous cell bladder cancer is quite aggressive in nature, rapidly progresses and spread to other parts of the body very quickly if not treated in time. And it responds very poorly with cancer medication. Only the viable treatment option is to surgically remove the bladder completely and urinary diversion. Surgery can only be performed in those patients with localized cancer. Advanced cancer cannot be cured only palliative treatment can be provided,” said the doctor.
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Reddy Adapala further added, “Someone who is diagnosed to have bladder stone, get it removed at the earliest before it’s too late to escape from cancerisation. Small bladder stones can easily be fragmented by using endoscopic instruments. Larger stones may need open surgery.”