Urinary Bladder Carcinoma in Females: A Clinico-Pathological Assessment

Background: Urinary bladder cancer is an uncommon cancer in females. Despite not being an infrequent encounter, female bladder cancer remains a poorly defined entity. There is a paucity of literature regarding bladder cancer in females, especially in North India. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the clinico-pathological profile of bladder cancer in female patients managed at a single centre in north India. Materials and methods: This retrospective observational study was carried out in a tertiary care centre in North India. Medical records and a database of female patients with bladder cancer treated between January 2012 and January 2021 were retrieved. Data regarding age, duration of disease, associated comorbidity, histopathological variants, and outcomes were studied. Results: Out of 56 female patients with bladder masses, 55 had transitional cell carcinoma (TCC), while one had pheochromocytoma. Painless hematuria (80.3%) was the commonest presentation. At the time of presentation, 5 patients (9.1%) had muscle-invasive bladder cancer (T2-T4), while 50 patients had non-muscle-invasive disease, out of which 31 (56.4%) patients had high-grade and 19 (34.5%) patients had low-grade papillary carcinoma. Twenty-three patients (41.8%) had a history of exposure to domestic chulha (open wood-burning cooking stove), and 11 patients (20%) were smokers; six patients (10.9%) were exposed to both risk factors. Conclusions: Female bladder cancer was most prevalent in the sixth decade of life, with the majority of patients having a high-grade but non-muscle-invasive disease. Of all the risk factors, chulha exposure was the main risk factor in the aetiology of female bladder cancer.