Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), especially aspirin, may decrease the risk of bladder cancer according to a new study led by Dr. Margaret Karagas of Dartmouth Medical School.

The findings point to a decrease in risk for bladder cancer, especially advanced, high-grade tumors that contain alternations in the tumor suppressor protein TP53, with NSAID use. There was no correlation between the use of acetaminophen and risk of bladder cancer.

The study also showed an increased risk of cancer among users of phenacetin-containing analgesics, which were withdrawn in the 1980s.

Smoking is a well-known risk factor for bladder cancer and is responsible for 50% of the incidence in men and 25% of the incidence in women. Earlier studies have suggested that quitting smoking might reduce the risk of cancer incidence. Researchers have recently shown that quitting smoking is also effective not only to lower the original occurrence, but also to reduce the risk of relapse.

Chen and colleagues at the National Taiwan University Hospital have shown that smokers who have had bladder cancer who continue smoking have a 2.2-fold greater risk of recurrence compared to those who quit.

University of Florida researchers, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan, have identified proteins that appear to signal the presence of bladder cancer. They hope this discovery will lead to a simple test that can detect the disease early.

"With any cancer, the earlier you find it, the better, because it's not as aggressive in its early stages, and of course it's much easier to remove any cancer anywhere in the body if you catch it while it's relatively small," said Steve Goodison, an associate professor of surgery at the UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville.

The findings will be published in the July 6 edition of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Proteome Research.

Bladder cancer is among the five most common cancers and four times as many men than women develop the disease. Smoking and industrial toxins are known risk factors.

Bladder cancer is a type of cancer I rarely hear about, but when I do it sends shivers up, well, something. It's in the top-5 cancers worldwide, but it just does not get the kind of media attention other types of cancers do (for some odd reason).

Common urine samples are how many cases of bladder cancer are found, but these methods aren't foolproof. Well, new research may be able to put that notion to bed.

But, according to research out of the University of Florida, a protein called A1BG appears to be more common in the urine of bladder cancer patients -- and testing for the presence of this protein can become a very important way to test for bladder cancer outside of current urine testing methodologies.

When caught early, thank goodness, bladder cancer is much more treatable. In fact, the 5-year survival rate is about 94% -- which really gives the motivation to ask your doctor about A1BG testing the next time a urine sample is taken.

Tate Donovan will be the new Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, BCAN, national spokesperson and will serve as a member on the BCAN Board of Directors. In 2001, Donovan's father, Dr. Timothy Donovan, urologist, died of bladder cancer. In 2005, his mother was diagnosed with early-stage bladder cancer.

"For too long bladder cancer has been like an 'orphan' among cancers, and as anyone in my family knows full well, it can be a devastating disease," said Donovan. "In the memory of my father, I'm hopeful I can help BCAN let people know that bladder cancer is real, and that it's time to start talking about it." Bladder cancer is the fifth most common form of cancer. More than 63,000 new patients are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year. Bladder cancer causes 13,000 deaths annually. As spokesperson for BCAN, Donovan will appear in educational materials, as well as tell his family's story to the public, to help raise awareness about bladder cancer.

Currently, Donovan is best known for playing Jimmy Cooper on the hit television drama "The O.C." Donovan has appeared in more than 20 movies including "Good Night, and Good Luck" and several theater productions on and off Broadway. In addition, Donovan plays fiddle with The McGuffins, a traditional Irish band.

Vicki Blankenship, diagnosed with bladder cancer eight years ago, has been cancer-free since 2003. At the time of diagnosis, she walked away from the corporate world to pursue music. Blackenship founded Indie Music For Life, Fighting Cancer One Song At A Time, a non-profit organization of independent singer songwriters of all genres and styles of music that raise money for The Lineberger Cancer Research Center by joining together in concert benefits and by donating songs to compilation CDs. She is also CEO of Indiegrrl, founded as a forum for information, networking, and conversation about independent music from a female perspective, and has an international online community of 1,500 independent female musicians.

Stem cells are master cells, the cells that all cells come from, before they become specialized cells that go on to replicate themselves into cells with similar properties. Researchers worldwide are attempting to isolate and characterize cancer stem cells. Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Stem Cell Research Program researchers are making discoveries into the origin and behavior of cancer stem cells producing new cancer cells dividing uncontrollably, promoting new growth and metastasis of new tumors.

Discovering the genetic mutations that cause cancer stem cells to behave abnormally may allow for the development of therapies to prevent the out-of-control replication by stopping the process at its cancer stem cell source. The Cancer Stem Cell Research Program scientists have discovered and isolated human leukemia and human breast cancer stem cells, and are now close to isolating cancer stem cells for brain cancer, ovarian cancer, melanoma and bladder cancer. Stem cell research is so new, it would be difficult to predict, at this point in time, how much of a curative factor therapies resulting from stem cell research will have on cancers. However, it is an exciting field of study to watch, with the promise of illuminating a complex understanding into the heart of how cancer cells behave, grow, and survive, by identifying and understanding cancer stem cells, the master cells of cancer.

Early in life, men may have higher rates of bladder cancer because women's sex hormones are acting as a protective factor for women against the development of this disease. Brigham and Women‘s Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers believe this may be the only explanation why men are diagnosed with bladder cancer in far greater numbers than women. Once a woman becomes postmenopausal, and experiences the subsequent drop in estrogen levels associated with menopause, her risk level for bladder cancer begins to match the same rate as it is for men. For women who smoke, the risks are even greater, as the contributing causes to bladder cancer are smoking and inflammation. Bladder dysfunction and urinary tract infections, a common malady for postmenopausal women, causes inflammation of the bladder.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network is advising the medical community to take a new approach when treating patients with bladder cancer. The organization is suggesting that patients who suffer from invasive bladder cancer should be given a session of chemotherapy before undergoing surgery and radiotherapy; the current protocol calls for surgery and radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy. This novel format has produced an improvement of 5% at the five year survival mark. The network is also suggesting that patients who smoke must immediately quit,  because researchers believe smoking multiplies the risk of bladder cancer by up to three times, and causes more than half the cases.

A new tool to monitor bladder cancer is four times more effective than the conventional laboratory test in detection of the disease. According to the January edition of the Journal of American Medical Association, researchers led by The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, at 23 clinical sites, enrolled 668 patients with a history of bladder cancer, to look at how NMP22 assay effects the detection of recurrences. It in now apparent that the NMP22 assay detected 49.5 percent of recurrences (51 out of 103) when urine cytology detection was only 12.2 percent (12 out of 98).  When combined with cystoscopy NMP22 assay detected 99 percent of bladder cancers and an improvement of 8 percent when using cystoscopy alone.%uFFFD Bladder cancer is the 5th most common cancer in the United States, and the possibility of it recurring is as high as 50 percent. These improvements in detection will help prevent the advancement of the bladder cancer before it requires aggressive treatment.

A drug used to treat breast cancer may also help bladder cancer patients, research suggests. Scientists found elevated levels of a protein called HER2 - targeted by the drug - in more than half of patients with advanced bladder cancer.

These patients were given herceptin and traditional chemotherapy - and in 70% of cases their tumors shrank. The drug is associated with fewer side effects than standard chemotherapy drugs.

The study, by the University of Michigan, was presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.