Persistent symptoms characteristic of urinary tract infection (UTI) that do not improve with time or treatment could indicate bladder cancer.
That’s the simple “take-home message” from a first of its kind study of UTI-like symptoms and bladder cancer, according to lead
author Kyle Richards, MD, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The message is for clinicians and applies to both men and women, he told reporters during a press briefing here at the American Urological Association 2015 Annual Meeting.
Awareness is especially important when it comes women, said Dr 
Richards, because bladder cancer is most commonly associated with men.
“A lot of primary care doctors who are initially seeing these symptomatic patients are less aware that bladder cancer is even a possibility in women,” he explained.
And he pointed out that because bladder cancer most commonly presents as blood in the urine, or hematuria, UTI-like symptoms do not always raise suspicion for this cancer.
In their study — the first to look at patients with bladder cancer who present with UTIs — Dr Richards and his 
colleagues assessed the impact of this presentation on patient outcomes.
They report that diagnoses take longer and outcomes are poorer in men and women who present with UTIs than in men who present with hematuria.
Source: Medscape