Risks For Bladder Cancer
Certain behaviours, substances or conditions can affect your risk, orchance, of developing cancer. Some things increase your risk and some thingsdecrease it. Most cancers are the result of many risks. But sometimes cancer develops in peoplewho don’t have any risks.
Smoking tobacco is the main risk for bladder cancer.
The risk of developing bladder cancer increases with age. Itusually occurs in people older than 65 years of age. Bladder cancer is mostcommon in Caucasians, and men develop this disease more often than women.
The following can increase or decrease your risk for bladdercancer. There are things you can do to lower your risk and help protect yourselffrom developing cancer.
What Is The Evidence That Personal Hair Dye Use Is Associated With Risk Of Nhl
A number of studies have investigated the relationship between the personal use of hair dyes and the risk of NHL, with conflicting results. Because the small size of some studies may have limited their ability to detect an association between hair dye use and cancer, a pooled analysis of four case-control studies was carried out . All four studies had obtained detailed information on hair dye use, including dates and duration of use, and on NHL subtype. The pooled analysis included 4,461 women with NHL and 5,799 women who did not have NHL. The results of the study showed that women who began using hair dye before 1980 had a slightly increased risk of NHL compared with women who had never used hair dye, whereas no such increase in risk was seen for women who began using hair dye after 1980.
Arsenic In Drinking Water
Arsenic in drinking water has been linked with a higher risk of bladder cancer in some parts of the world. The chance of being exposed to arsenic depends on where you live and whether you get your water from a well or from a public water system that meets the standards for low arsenic content. For most Americans, drinking water isn’t a major source of arsenic.
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Hair Dye And Bladder Cancer
Can hair dye cause cancer of the bladder? There have been a few studies that attempted to find a link between hair dye and bladder cancer and results have also been conflictingsome studies did find a significant link while others did not find a strong association.
For example, a study conducted by Dr. Manuela Gago-Dominquez, professor Medicine at the University of Southern California, studying 897 bladder cancer patients and a similar number of healthy women, has found a significant link between hair dye use and bladder cancer.
Dr. Manuela supports that the frequency of hair dye use seems to play a role in the development of bladder cancer but again says no conclusions should be made about the use of hair dyes and bladder cancer.
Another study conducted by Kelsh MA, Alexander DD, Kalmes RM, and Buffler PA, has not shown any strong link between hair dye use and an increased risk in bladder cancer.
What Is The Evidence That Personal Hair Dye Use Is Associated With Risk Of Leukemia
Studies of the association between personal hair dye use and the risk of leukemia have had conflicting results. For example, one case-control study examined hair dye use among 769 patients with adult acute leukemia and 623 people without leukemia in the United States and Canada . It found that the risks of acute leukemia were higher among users of earlier formulations of both permanent and nonpermanent dyes than among those who had not used dyes, although the increases were not statistically significant. No risk increases were seen among users of more recent dye formulations. Risk was greatest among those who had used permanent dyes for longer durations .
However, a case-control study in Italy found no association between use of permanent hair dye overall and risk of leukemia, although users of black permanent dyes, but not of other color dyes, did have an increased risk. This study, however, did not collect information on the timing or frequency of hair dye use .
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Response To Does Hair Dye Use Really Increase The Risk Of Prostate Cancer
Shu-Yu Tai26, Hui-Min Hsieh6, 7, Shu-Pin Huang8, 9, Ming-Tsang Wu57, 10
2Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
3Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
4Department of Family Medicine, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
5Department of Family Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
6Research Center for Environmental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
7Department of Public Health, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
8Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
9Department of Urology, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
10Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Studies On Hair Dyes Ongoing
Although hair dyes are at the top of the list of potential sources, two scientists at the forefront of research on the subject tell WebMD that the evidence favoring a connection is inconclusive at best. The two will meet next week in Baltimore at a workshop sponsored by hair dye industry leaders to discuss the direction of future studies.
Early this year, Yale researcher Tongzhang Zheng, ScD, reported that long-term use of dark shades of permanent hair dye can double the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Zheng tells WebMD that his findings suggest but do not prove that hair dyes actually cause cancer.
A big unanswered question, he says, is whether the hair dye formulations used today pose the same risk as formulations used several decades ago.
“Hair dye companies have done a lot over the past 25 years to change these products to address concerns about safety,” he says.
Johns Hopkins professor of epidemiology Kathy Helzlsouer, MD, who has reviewed the clinical studies on hair dye use and cancer, says the best clinical evidence suggests no increase in breast cancer and only a small increase in blood cancers in hair dye users. The bladder cancer risk associated with hair dye use is not clear, she says.
One problem with assessing hair dye risk is that bladder cancer is relatively rare among women and women are the primary users of hair dyes. Just 15,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with the disease each year, compared with 38,000 men.
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What Do Studies Show
Researchers use 2 main types of studies to try to figure out if a substance causes cancer. A substance that causes cancer or helps cancer grow is called a carcinogen.
In studies done in the lab, animals are exposed to a substance to see if it causes tumors or other health problems. Researchers may also expose normal cells in a lab dish to the substance to see if it causes the types of changes that are seen in cancer cells. In lab studies, researchers can control many of the other factors that might affect the results. Still, its not always clear if the results in lab dishes or animals would be the same in humans, for a number of reasons.
Another type of study looks at cancer rates in different groups of people. Such a study might compare the cancer rate in a group exposed to a substance to the rate in a group not exposed to it, or compare it to what the expected cancer rate would be in the general population. But sometimes it can be hard to know what the results of these studies mean, because it is hard to account for the many other factors that might affect the results .
In most cases neither type of study provides enough evidence on its own, so researchers usually look at both human and lab-based studies when trying to figure out if something might cause cancer.
Studies done in the lab
Its not clear how these results might relate to peoples use of hair dyes.
Studies in people
- People who use hair dyes regularly
- People who are exposed to them at work
What Is The Evidence That Personal Hair Dye Use Is Associated With Risk Of Bladder Cancer
Research on personal hair dye use and the risk of bladder cancer has produced conflicting results.
An analysis of data pooled from 17 studies of personal hair dye use found no evidence of an increased risk of bladder cancer . However, some recent studies have suggested an increased risk of bladder cancer associated with the use of permanent hair dyes , whereas other studies have not . Also, some but not all studies have suggested an increased risk of bladder cancer associated with the use of dark-colored dyes.
Because studies have shown that professional hairdressers have an increased risk of bladder cancer that may be due to occupational exposure to hair dye , researchers will continue to study whether personal hair dye use is related to bladder cancer risk.
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Chronic Bladder Irritation And Infections
Urinary infections, kidney and bladder stones, bladder catheters left in place a long time, and other causes of chronic bladder irritation have been linked to bladder cancer . But its not clear if they actually cause bladder cancer.
Schistosomiasis , an infection with a parasitic worm that can get into the bladder, is also a risk factor for bladder cancer. In countries where this parasite is common , squamous cell cancers of the bladder are much more common. This is an extremely rare cause of bladder cancer in the United States.
Comparison With Other Studies
Hematopoietic cancer, bladder cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer are among the cancers most frequently investigated in relation to hair dye use.6 Our results differ from reports of a slightly increased relative risk of overall hematopoietic cancer612 . Our findings update the first prospective cohort study of hematopoietic cancer among women who use permanent hair dye conducted in 1994 with participants from the Nurses Health Study.17 With considerably longer follow-up, our findings generally replicate the previous report of no material increase in the risk of overall or major subcategories of hematopoietic cancer, although we note that the previous study preceded the modern WHO classification of hematological cancers .17 The observation of higher Hodgkin lymphoma risk among women who were presumed to use dark colored permanent hair dye is novel and warrants cautious interpretation. This finding is based on a limited number of women and we had insufficient histological subtype information to restrict the analysis to classic Hodgkin lymphoma types, which might have a different cause from non-classical types.34 Additionally, we cannot rule out an influence of residual or otherwise uncontrolled confounding, for example, by factors for which we lacked information .
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Genetics And Family History
People who have family members with bladder cancer have a higher risk of getting it themselves. Sometimes this may be because the family members are exposed to the same cancer-causing chemicals . They may also share changes in some genes that make it hard for their bodies to break down certain toxins, which can make them more likely to get bladder cancer.
A small number of people inherit a gene syndrome that increases their risk for bladder cancer. For example:
- A mutation of the retinoblastoma gene can cause cancer of the eye in infants, and also increases the risk of bladder cancer.
- Cowden disease, caused by mutations in the PTEN gene, is linked mainly to cancers of the breast and thyroid. People with this disease also have a higher risk of bladder cancer.
- Lynch syndrome is linked mainly to colon and endometrial cancer. People with this syndrome might also have an increased risk of bladder cancer .
For information on testing for inherited gene changes that increase cancer risk, see Understanding Genetic Testing for Cancer.
How Are People Exposed To Hair Dyes
The most common way to be exposed is to dye your hair or have it dyed. Some chemicals in hair dyes can be absorbed in small amounts through the skin or inhaled from fumes in the air.
People who work around hair dyes regularly as part of their jobs, such as hairdressers, stylists, and barbers, are likely to be exposed more than people who just dye their hair on occasion. Many of the concerns about hair dyes possibly causing cancer have focused on people who work with them.
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Bladder Cancer Risk Factors
A risk factor is anything that affects your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. You can change some risk factors, like smoking or weight others, like your age or family history, you cant.
But having a risk factor, or even many, does not mean that you will get the disease. Many people with risk factors never get bladder cancer, while others with this disease may have few or no known risk factors.
Still, its important to know about the risk factors for bladder cancer because there may be things you can do that might lower your risk of getting it. If you’re at higher risk because of certain factors, you might be helped by tests that could find it early, when treatment is most likely to be effective.
Many risk factors make a person more likely to develop bladder cancer.
Certain Medicines Or Herbal Supplements
According to the US Food and Drug Administration , use of the diabetes medicine pioglitazone is linked with an increased risk of bladder cancer. The risk seems to get higher when higher doses are used.
Dietary supplements containing aristolochic acid have been linked with an increased risk of urothelial cancers, including bladder cancer.
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Cancers At Other Sites
A working group assessment by the Internal Agency for Research on Cancer in 1993 assessed the risk of cancers of the cervix , ovary , lung , kidney , brain , salivary gland , and malignant melanoma . Too few studies were available on those cancer sites to allow reviewers to make a conclusion whether personal hair dye use is associated with the risk of these cancer sites. More recently, however, a significant two-fold increased risk of ovarian cancer was observed for women who reported using hair dyes greater than 4 times per year and the risk increased with increasing frequency of hair dye use . In one study of brain tumors, glioma risk was increased 1.7-fold , and those who used permanent dye, a 2.4- fold increased risk . However, a large portion of cases were proxy interviews. In another brain tumor study no consistent association with any brain tumors was noted . Exposure assessment did not heavily rely on proxy interview as in the Heineman et al study .
Strengths And Limitations Of Study
Secondly, the carcinogenic potential of dark colored permanent hair dyes are of greatest concern.127 Permanent hair dyes consist of dye intermediates and couplers, which can react with each other to form pigment molecules.12 The shades of color are approximately proportional to the concentration of ingredients darker hair dyes tend to contain higher concentrations of ingredients, whereas lighter shades contain lower concentrations.12 Additionally, lead acetate based dark colored products can still be found on the international market.14 Previous studies have particularly noted a potential increase in cancer risk for users of dark colored permanent hair dyes.17 However, in our study, we lacked information on the color of permanent hair dyes used, instead conducting analyses stratified by natural hair color to explore the question of heterogeneous effects only indirectly . Thirdly, the reported increase in using natural or direct dye in combination with permanent hair dye should be noted,1 and their safety warrants further investigations. Fourthly, attention should be paid to differences relating to permanent hair dye use in personal and occupational exposure settings. Although the chemical composition of hair dye products for occupational use is similar to that for home use, the cumulative dose of dermal and airborne exposure for hairdressers or beauticians could be higher than that of consumers.137
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Hair Dye And Leukemia Cancer
Does hair dye cause leukemia or blood cancer? A few studies on whether hair dye may cause leukemia cancer have not shown any strong link between hair dye use and increased risk for leukemia cancer.
For instance, a study conducted in the U.S and Canada, with 765 leukemia patients and 623 healthy individual test subjects, has found a slightly elevated risk of leukemia cancer noticed in permanent and non-permanent hair dye users than those who didnt use any hair dyes. Still, there has been only a minor difference and the researchers didnt find any strong link between hair dye use and leukemia development that should raise concerns.
A study conducted in Italy also did not find any strong association between hair dye use and leukemia, although in its findings, there is a slightly increased risk noticed between black/dark brown hair dye users and development of leukemia.
Coloring Your Hair Could Affect Your Bladder
April 4, 2000 — In Los Angeles County — a place where “the natural look” often means a good dye job from a Beverly Hills salon — as many as 19% of the cases of bladder cancer in women could be linked to the use of permanent hair dyes, cancer researchers say.
Researcher Manuela Gago-Dominguez, MD, PhD, tells WebMD that the risk is greatest among women who “use the dye 12 or more times a year for 15 years or longer.” She says that women who dye their hair at that rate are almost three times more likely to get bladder cancer than those who don’t dye their hair or dye it less frequently.
But this increased risk is not as great as that associated with smoking. A 40-year-old woman who smokes is five times more likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer than a non-smoking woman of the same age, says Gago-Dominguez, who is with the Norris Cancer Center at the University of Southern California.
Hairdressers and barbers have an even greater risk, Gago-Dominguez says, and “the occupational risk is the same for men and women. Persons who worked 10 or more years as hairdressers or barbers were five times more likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer.” That occupational risk has been reported in previous studies, but Gago-Dominguez says her study is the first to link “the personal use of hair dye by women to bladdercancer risk.”
Continued
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