Tobacco and bladder cancer

Smoking causes about half of all diagnosed bladder cancers.Footnote 1Footnote 2

Key facts about tobacco use and bladder cancer

  • Someone who smokes is up to six times more likely to develop bladder cancer than someone who does not smoke.Footnote 3Footnote 4Footnote 5
  • The risk of bladder cancer increases with the number of years spent smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked per day.Footnote 6Footnote 7
  • In 2022, it was estimated there were 12,500 new cases of bladder cancer in Canada (excluding Quebec), and 2,600 deaths from bladder cancer.Footnote 8
  • In Canada (excluding Quebec), about 23% of people diagnosed with bladder cancer are predicted to die within five years, according to 2015-2017 data.Footnote 9

View health labels for cigarettes and little cigars.

What is bladder cancer?

The bladder is a hollow sac that stores urine from the kidneys before it is removed by the body through urination.

Bladder cancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells in the bladder, leading to the formation of a tumour. Over time, the tumour may extend deeper into the bladder lining and invade the muscular layer of the bladder wall.

The most common symptom of bladder cancer is blood in the urine. Other symptoms include needing to urinate more often or more urgently, and pain or burning during urination.

Tumours caught at an early stage can be treated with surgery or chemotherapy. Advanced cases of bladder cancer may require removal of the bladder. In this case, an external drainage bag (urostomy bag) may be needed to help store urine.

How does tobacco use increase the risk of bladder cancer?

Some of the chemicals in tobacco smoke are carcinogenic, meaning they can cause mutations in cells of the body.Footnote 10

These chemicals pass into the urine after smoking and remain there for up to 18 hours. This exposure can cause genetic changes in cells of the bladder, which can lead to the development of bladder cancer.Footnote 11

How does quitting reduce the risk of bladder cancer?

When someone stops smoking, their risk of bladder cancer decreases.Footnote 11

A few years after quitting, their risk of developing bladder cancer drops by about half.Footnote 12

If someone has quit for 25 years or more, their risk is the same as someone who has never smoked.Footnote 13

Quitting is one of the best ways to avoid the development of bladder cancer and other smoking-related diseases.Footnote 11

If someone had bladder cancer, quitting can still benefit them. Quitting smoking can improve recovery for cancer patients. Footnote 14

Continuing to smoke after a cancer diagnosis can lower chances of survival and increase the risk for other cancers caused by smoking such as lung cancer.Footnote 14

Health benefits of quitting tobacco use at any age

Quitting tobacco use reduces the risk of premature death, improves health, and enhances quality of life.Footnote 11 Quitting at any age is beneficial to one's health.Footnote 11 Even people who have smoked or used tobacco heavily for many years benefit from it.Footnote 1Footnote 11 Quitting is the most important thing someone who smokes can do to improve their health.

Read more about the benefits of quitting smoking.

For help to quit

Free quit counselling, coaching and other services in your province or territory

Find services to quit smoking

Footnotes

Footnote 1

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking. A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 2004.

Return to footnote 1 referrer

Footnote 2

Cancer.net Editorial Board, Bladder Cancer: Statistics. O1, 2020.

https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/bladder-cancer/statistics

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Footnote 3

Freedman ND, Silverman DT, Hollenbeck AR, et al. Association between smoking and risk of bladder cancer among men and women. JAMA. 2011;306:737-45.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1104233

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Footnote 4

Baris D, Karagas MR, Verrill C, Johnson A, Andrew AS, Marsit CJ, et al. A case–control study of smoking and bladder cancer risk: Emergent patterns over time. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2009;101(22):1553–1561. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djp361

Return to footnote 4 referrer

Footnote 5

World Cancer Research Fund International. Continuous Update Project. Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer: a Global Perspective. 2015.

https://www.wcrf.org/sites/default/files/Bladder-cancer-report.pdf

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Footnote 6

Brennan P, Bogillot O, Cordier S et al. Cigarette smoking and bladder cancer in men: A pooled analysis of 11 case-control studies. Int J Cancer. 2000;86: 289-294.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/%28SICI%291097-0215%2820000415%2986%3A2%3C289%3A%3AAID-IJC21%3E3.0.CO%3B2-M?sid=nlm%3Apubmed

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Footnote 7

Brennan P, Bogillot O, Greiser E, et al. The contribution of cigarette smoking to bladder cancer in women (pooled European data). Cancer Causes Control. 2001;12(5):411-417. Doi:10.1023/a:1011214222810.

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Footnote 8

Canadian Cancer Statistics Advisory Committee. Canadian Cancer Statistics 2021. Toronto, ON: Canadian Cancer Society; 2021. Available at: cancer.ca/Canadian-Cancer-Statistics-2021-EN. https://cdn.cancer.ca/-/media/files/research/cancer-statistics/2021-statistics/2021-pdf-en-final.pdf

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Footnote 9

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 2010.

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Footnote 10

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 2020.

Return to footnote 10 referrer

Footnote 11

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville (MD): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 1990. DHHS Publication No. (CDC) 90-8416.

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Footnote 12

International Agency for Research on Cancer. IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention, Tobacco Control, Vol. 11: Reversal of Risk After Quitting Smoking. Lyon (France); 2007. https://publications.iarc.fr/Book-And-Report-Series/Iarc-Handbooks-Of-Cancer-Prevention/Tobacco-Control-Reversal-Of-Risk-After-Quitting-Smoking-2007

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Footnote 13

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 2014.

Return to footnote 13 referrer

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