This week's artwork was donated by Vansom, a pediatric cancer patient who received treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia . The stage, or local extent of the disease, is related to the depth of penetration of the tumor into the bladder wall and is an important predictive feature of the cancer. Occupational exposure to chemicals includes those found in the synthetic textile dye industry, in the rubber industry, in hair dyes, and as paint pigment.
Occupations known to increase risk include janitors, mechanics, miners, printers, and hair-dressers.
Ingestion of other physical agents such as coffee, alcohol, saccharin, and phenacetin has been weakly linked to bladder cancer. Schistosomiasis is rare in the United States but common in many African countries and especially Egypt, where the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder is much higher. It has also been documented that blacks have a much poorer survival rate than whites, regardless of the stage of disease at diagnosis. Systemic manifestations may include weakness, anemia, and weight loss. Treatment of bladder cancer should be selected to prevent death from malignancy and to decrease morbidity from the disease process as well as the treatment.