What is bladder cancer?
Bladder cancer occurs when cells in the lining of the bladder grow
and divide in an abnormal, uncontrolled way. There are three main types
of bladder cancer. Approximately 90% of bladder cancers are urothelial
carcinoma, which begins in urothelial cells of the bladders lining. The
less common types are squammous cell carcinoma (develop in the bladder
lining) and adenocarcinoma (develops from glandular cells).
You can access further information about bladder cancer, including
risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment from
Cancer
Council Victoria. You can also
call
our trusted cancer nurses on 13 11 20 for support and to learn about
our range of services for people affected by cancer.
The Victorian Cancer Registry also operates an interactive web
portal,
Data
Explorer, which provides more trends and statistics than published
here.
How common is bladder cancer?
In 2023, 802 Victorians were diagnosed with bladder cancer. Of these,
there were 613 males and 189 females, representing 76.4% and 23.6% of
the total Victorian bladder cancer diagnoses, respectively. Currently,
bladder cancer is diagnosed at a rate of 15.2 per 100,000 males and 3.9
per 100,000 females. The median age at diagnosis of bladder cancer is 74
years in males and 75 in females (Figure 1 & 2). Accounting for 2%
of all cancers diagnosed and 2.7% of all cancer-related deaths in 2023,
bladder cancer was the 12th most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 10th
most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Victoria.
Trends in bladder cancer over time
Figure 3a shows for males between 2007 to 2023 the age standardised
incidence rate of bladder cancer declined by an average of 1.6% per
year.
For females between 2008 to 2023 the age standardised incidence rate
of bladder cancer declined by an average of 1.2% per year.
Bladder cancer morphology
Figure 4 provides a summary of the different types of cells
(morphology) which have caused bladder cancer among all cases. Most
bladder cancer tumours, 90.4%, present as urothelial carcinoma
tumours.
Geographical variance in bladder cancer by local government
area
Figure 5 demonstrates variation in age-standardised incidence rates
of bladder cancer, by local government areas. Darker shading indicates
areas with higher rates of bladder cancer.
Bladder cancer in people born overseas
Figure 6 shows the age standardised incidence rates of bladder cancer
in Australian-born Victorians compared to other major migrant groups,
over the five-year period 2018 to 2022. The highest age standardised
incidence rate for bladder cancer was 19.6 for males born in the Other
Europe region and the lowest rate of 5.6 was observed in males born in
the South-East Asia region. The highest age standardised incidence rate
for bladder cancer was 5.8 for females born in the Africa region and
lowest rate of 1.6 was observed in females born in the South-East Asia
region.
Bladder cancer five-year relative survival
Figure 7 shows the change in 5-year survival for bladder cancer, and
the 5-year survival trend for all cancers over the same time period. It
demonstrates that five-year relative survival has decreased for bladder
cancer between 1983-1987 and 2018-2022 from 70% to 56%.