Prostate cancer therapy and cancer

There's good news for men who have undergone therapy with focused radiation beams for prostate cancer. The common treatment does not raise the risk of developing bladder cancer. Previous studies have suggested that, in women, using radiation therapy for gynaecologic cancers at least doubles the risk of bladder cancer. However, it is unclear if radiation therapy for prostate cancer also has this effect. Researchers form the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, analysed data from 1743 patients who underwent radiation for prostate cancer at their center between 1980 and 1998. After several years of follow-up, prostate cancer radiation was not tied to an elevated risk of bladder cancer. The natural history of bladder cancer in the population does not seem to be altered by radiation except that some patients seem to be diagnosed earlier.