The Diane Rehm Show

I stopped smoking 25 years ago. I smoked a pack a day for 21 years. I also have had chronic bladder infections most of my life, although they lessened after I quit smoking. What about one-time smokers? How does that affect the risk?

What about women who are smokers and didn't develop bladder cancer? Has any data been teased out about them (hormonally, diets, environmental factors) that could be used to help others?
Are there any plans to look at these women?

As a scientist, reasearcher and, later in my life, a physician, I am appauled at this program. Your guests are NOT as well-versed in the area as I would have hoped.

Regarding additives to cigarettes, napthalenes were known to induce bladder cancer years ago. Indeed, I learned this fact when I was an undergraduate in 1962. People that worked in the dye industry also suffered from an increased incidence of this disorder. And guess what kind of chemicals dyes can be?

I am also amazed that your guests should suggest that ALL women with blood in their urine should be tested for the presence of bladder cancer. In this day and age of cutbacks and of forever increasing health care costs. Of course bladder cancer should be screened for in the ideal world, but we do not live in an ideal world.

Smokers need to take responsiblity for the effects of smoking. As an ex-smoker, I have had to do this.

By the way, your program about Social Security the other day, was one of the most confusing I had ever heard and of little value to we, the aged.

My son was diagnosed with invasive bladder cancer at age 40. He has a history of repeated urinary tract infections as a result of a spinal cord injury. He had several episodes of hematuria and was never told that he was a risk for bladder cancer. By the time he was diagnosed, his cancer had spread into the bladder muscle and necessitated the removal of his bladder. Please know that recurrent bladder infections can put you at risk for bladder cancer.

Began listening 1/3 way into the program. Was there a list of symptoms? Mine was simply a diminishing of flow of urine. Fortunately it was caught/noticed in another scan done in the pelvic area. After surgery and follow up treatment all is well 5 years out. I am also taking a vitamin called Oncovite which is supposed to be useful in preventing reoccurance.

Smokeless tobacco has been linked to bladder cancer as well as many other carcinogens that are in the environment and has contaminated our water and food supplies.....supports the statement... fresh air, sun light and a balanced diet... causes cancer.

I was treated for anal-rectal cancer, another "below the belt" cancer that people do not like to discuss. I did survive, yet after treatment I developed UTI's, my urologist can't say if the symptoms (painful micturition, bleeding in urine) are from an enlarged prostate which I also have, or if these are precursor to bladder cancer. I do get cytoscopies performed every three to six months, and am cleared of cancer. I was a smoker, however quit ten years ago which leaves at risk. What do your guest think the next step be? Do I continue the cytoscopies or see another type of doctor that can help me rest assured?

I am glad to hear this show today, and because of delayed broadcast here in Arizona, I am commenting now. This is a very important piece of information, a connection that most people do not know.

I had a sudden bout of bloody urine last September, was treated (for the inflammation) and then pursued diagnosis beyond the dissipation of the signs of inflammation, because my father had bladder cancer in his early 60s. I am in my late 60s, have not smoked since 1978, and my urologist (who diagnosed my cancer and surgically removed the very superficial tumor successfully) has assured me that my history of smoking is most likely the trigger...even after 33 years!!

I know that other factors might be at play, given the air pollution in my childhood neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington. I have to admit I was pretty surprised that such early exposure to cigarette smoking, both second-hand and direct, could have been so influential. We'll never really know how these things combine.

Thank you, Diane, for your program.

Can we expect a suit against the Diane Rehm Show by the tobacco companies for disseminating unpleasant medical information to smokers and second hand smoke victims? Maybe. After all they are suing the FDA for the new warnings and pictures on their products claiming they violate their corporate free speech rights (to falsely advertise defective addictive drug products). Individuals don't have any Constitutional right to mass lying in the media so how do these special commercial corporate rights arise? Constructionists might point out that many of the Funding Fathers grew tobacco, but that's quite a stretch. Here's a good question: How many Supreme Court Justices now serving smoke or have smoked? How many accept favors from big tobacco? There are some bad habits that should exclude and cause the Impeachment of judicial nominees. Where there's smoke there's cancer, a cancer on the Judicial Branch.