AIM: To define and present explanations for the epidemiological, pathological and prognostic differences in bladder cancer in elderly patients.
METHOD: Bibliographical search was performed from the Medline bibliographic database (NLM Pubmed tool) and Embase focused on: bladder cancer, carcinogenesis, elderly, epidemiology, prognosis.
RESULTS: Bladder cancer is a growing concern for the elderly first and foremost and with an impact, mainly those who are consumers or former users of tobacco, whose therefore frequently have comorbidities associated with this consumption. The initiated carcinogenesis extends with the life length of patients, increasing the prevalence of bladder cancer. Aging promotes carcinogenesis by both potentiating its genetic abnormalities and reducing the immune system performance of the aged host to destroy cancer cells. The delay in the diagnosis of bladder cancer in elderly patients is explained and make up for the time could improve the prognosis.
CONCLUSION: Regardless of variations in therapeutic effect and morbidity and mortality of treatments, aging promotes the occurrence and aggressiveness of bladder cancer. The incentive to stop exposure to carcinogens and the search for bladder cancer in patients with hematuria should not reduce with advanced age but instead be promoted in order to improve the prognosis.