The overall chance of developing bladder cancer during your lifetime is 3% to 4%. This type of number, however, lumps the entire world into one group. In order to create a more meaningful number, researchers try to identify who is at a higher or lower risk. Factors in the environment or one’s lifestyle that increase the risk of developing cancer are called risk factors.
There are two types of risk factors. Risk factors that we are born with, such as our family genetics or race, are called unmodifiable risk factors because we cannot change them. For example, a man is two and a half times more likely to develop bladder cancer than is a woman, and there is no way for him to decrease this risk.
The second type of risk factor is called a modifiable risk factor. You can change these risk factors to decrease your odds of developing cancer. The most obvious modifiable risk factor is tobacco. Smoking dramatically increases your risk of developing cancer, and quitting smoking dramatically decreases that risk. The next two questions discuss these risks in more detail.