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Bladder cancer starts in the lining of the organ, forming tumors that can interfere with the ability to urinate.
The disease is now the seventh most common cancer in the U.S., with 84,530 diagnoses and 17,870 deaths expected this year, according to the American Cancer Society.
While overall rates of bladder cancer have fallen since 2000, research published in July came to an alarming conclusion: rates of bladder cancer were rising in women under age 50.
“What we have started seeing is 30 percent of all bladder cancers are now in females, which is incredibly interesting,” said Dr. Laura Bukavina, a urologic oncologist at Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement earlier this month. “And we know that there is some kind of pathology happening that we don’t quite understand yet.”
The surge was not seen in men and people over the age of 55, who make up the majority of cases.
Although smoking cigarettes is the biggest risk factor for bladder cancer, Bukavina says the uptick in cases doesn’t appear to be tied to smoking or even genetics. Instead, she noted a possible tie to air pollution and water pollution, including from microplastics.