Division of Nephro-Urologic Surgery and Andrology, Department of Reparative and Regenerative Medicine, Institute of Medical Life Science, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-174 Edobashi, Tsu, Mie, 514-8507, Japan.

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Barry S. Stein, MD

Question:
Military veterans and firefighters have been identified at increased risk for bladder cancer. Please compare and contrast the risk factors effecting these patient populations.

Dr. Barry Stein:
“The two groups are really very different. Military veterans have an increased incidence of bladder cancer primarily because they have a high incidence of smoking. This is especially true of Viet Nam veterans since I work at a VA hospital, I see a very high incidence of bladder cancer. “ Firefighters may not need to be cigarette smokers to be at increased incidence of bladder cancer. They may be seeing toxic chemicals in the fumes in the fires they are fighting.”

Stanford University Medical Center; Department of Urology, Stanford University School of Medicine; Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford, CA, USA.