Prognosis & Survival Rates for Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer can often be cured, or brought into remission, especially if treated early. However, bladder cancer tends to reappear. Overall, the chances of your cancer being cured depend on your type of cancer and how far it has spread.¹

Low grade and high grade bladder cancer

Bladder cancer starts in the lining of the bladder in about 90 percent of people diagnosed with this cancer. Bladder cancer is called low grade or high grade.

• Low-grade bladder cancer means the cancer has not invaded the muscles around the bladder (non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer). People rarely die from this type of bladder cancer, it often recurs after treatment.
• High-grade bladder cancer also often recurs and has a higher chance of spreading to other parts of the body. Almost all deaths from bladder cancer result this type so it is treated more aggressively.

Understanding the statistics: cancer survival

It is important to remember that all cancer survival numbers are based on averages across huge numbers of people. These numbers cannot predict what will happen in your individual case.

Survival rates will not tell you how long you will live after you have been diagnosed with bladder cancer. But, these numbers can give you an idea of how likely your treatment will be successful. Also, survival rates take into account your age at diagnosis but not whether you have other health conditions too.

Treatments are improving

Remember, treatments for bladder cancer improve every year. Statistics about 10-year survival, for example, are based on people who were diagnosed and treated for bladder cancer 10 years ago. The treatment options available to those people may not be the same as the treatment options that you have today.

High average 5-year survival rate

The National Cancer Institute estimates the average 5-year survival rate for anyone who has bladder cancer, of any stage, to be 77 percent. This means that 3 out of 4 people diagnosed with bladder cancer will still alive after 5 years.³

Bladder cancer stages and survival rates

Cancer survival rates are also categorized according to the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed. The stage of cancer generally refers to how far it has progressed, and whether it has spread to other parts of the body. For bladder cancer, the 5-year survival rate for people with:^2,3

• Bladder cancer in situ (in originating cells only) is around 96 percent
• Localized bladder cancer (sometimes called “Stage 1”) is around 70 percent
• Bladder cancer that has spread to the regional lymph nodes is 35 percent
• Distant or metastasized bladder cancer is 5 percent (sometimes called "Stage 4")

If you would like to learn more about bladder cancer statistics, consider speaking with someone on your health care team. They will be able to explain more about how these statistics apply to your cancer. Tell us about your experience in the comments below, or share your story with the community.