What You Need to Know about Cancer of the Urinary Bladder Possible Causes and Prevention Researchers at hospitals and medical centers all across the country are studying bladder cancer. They are trying to learn what causes the disease and how to prevent it. At this time, the causes of bladder cancer are not fully understood.
Some researchers study patterns of cancer in the population.
They look for factors that are more common in people who get bladder cancer than in people who don't get this disease. Studying such patterns helps researchers identify risk factors for bladder cancer. However, most people with these risk factors do not get cancer, and many people who do get bladder cancer have none of the known risk factors. Researchers have found that white people in the United States get bladder cancer twice as often as African-Americans, and men are affected about three times as often as women. People with family members who have bladder cancer may be more likely to get the disease as well.