Father, 50, Who Mistook Years of Bathroom Pain for Rare Urinary Tract Infection, Discovers He Has Advanced Bladder Cancer

UTIs are more common in women than men, Harvard Health Publishing says. The medical journal BJGP Open says UTIs “affect around 20% of the male population,” however, Chris Cotton, 50, was certain that’s what was causing him pain when he passed urine.

WATCH: Understanding the different types of bladder cancer.

Since the discomfort persisted for over two years, Cotton consulted his doctor, who initially prescribed antibiotics.

“A few months later, the pain came back,” Cotton said to media outlet SWNS, the New York Post reports.

Additional tests, which included a biopsy and CT scan, revealed Cotton had stage 4 bladder cancer. Doctors removed a 10-centimeter tumor from his bladder.

“I prepared myself that it could be cancer after the doctor left, it hit me, and I was upset for a while,” Cotton said.

He then thought of his family and the impact the diagnosis would have on them.

“This devastating news came as a huge shock — not just to me, but also to my incredibly strong and supportive wife Hannah, and our two wonderful young daughters aged 12 and 14,” Cotton said.

Since the cancer had already metastasized, meaning it spread to other parts of his body, it spread into his pelvic lymph nodes and a vessel near his bladder.

Cotton has since been undergoing treatment for his cancer, which, while incurable, can be managed. He began six cycles of chemotherapy earlier this year. In the meantime, he has gained an added appreciation for the time he’s able to spend with his family.

WATCH: How Should My Doctor and I Make a Treatment Plan For Bladder Cancer?

“I want people to listen to their bodies,” Cotton told U.K. news outlet The Mirror.

“Don’t ignore the signs. If something doesn’t feel right, get it checked. If telling my story helps even one person get diagnosed earlier, then it’s worth it.”

While continuing chemotherapy, Cotton is also raising money for cancer. He has since launched a GoFundMe, which has raised more than 3,000 euros, or a little more than $3,300 U.S. dollars.

Understanding Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer is the sixth-most common type of cancer overall in the United States, though it is the fourth-most common for men.

Your bladder is a hollow, muscular, balloon-shaped organ that expands as it fills with urine. The bladder is a vital component of the urinary system.

WATCH: Understanding Bladder Cancer Symptoms

Bladder cancer develops when cells that make up the urinary bladder start to grow and eventually develop into tumors. Smoking is a leading risk factor for this disease, with smokers being three times

Symptoms of bladder cancer may include:

• Frequent urination
• Painful urination
• Flank pain (around the sides of your body)
• Urgency
• Blood in Urine

Bladder Cancer Treatment

Bladder cancer can be treated in various ways, but your doctor will consider several factors to determine the best treatment. Where the cancer is inside your body and if it has spread are some factors doctors look at before finalizing your treatment plan.

Surgery for bladder cancer often offers the best chance for a cure. There are various surgical options depending on the location of your bladder cancer.

For patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, treatment will most likely consist of transurethral resection of visible bladder tumor (TURBT). During this procedure, the surgeon gently inserts a surgical instrument containing a camera into the urethra and pushes it upward until it reaches the bladder.

Once at the bladder, the instrument is used to remove all the tumors that the surgeon can see on camera. Most patients can leave the hospital on the same day, but some may need to stay longer, depending on the extent of tissue removal required.

WATCH: Treating Late-Stage Bladder Cancer

If the surgeon and pathologist determine that more tissue needs to be removed, additional surgery may be performed four to six weeks later.

Depending on the aggressiveness of your tumor, cystoscopy (a procedure to see inside the bladder and urethra) will be required to check the area once a year or as frequently as every few months for the first few years after treatment. This is combined with routine imaging of the urinary tract.

Chemotherapy is usually recommended before cystectomy or the total or partial removal of the bladder. Giving chemotherapy prior, or “neoadjuvant,” has been shown in large trials to improve survival in bladder cancer.

Other options to treat bladder cancer may include immunotherapy or targeted therapy.

A relatively new Food and Drug Administration-approved immunotherapy and chemotherapy combination has shown promise for people diagnosed with metastatic bladder cancers who cannot receive cisplatin-based treatment. The unique combination is enfortumab vedotin (also known as Padcev) and pembrolizumab (known as Keytruda). In a study of the combination, the new treatment achieved a response in 64.5% of the patients.

Risk Factors for Bladder Cancer

Smoking poses several health and cancer risks, and among them include bladder cancer. The National Institutes of Health says about half of all bladder cancer cases stem from smoking.

One reason smoking is so harmful to the bladder is that the toxins in nicotine and its chemical compounds can linger in the bladder for a long time before they are removed from the body in urine.

“The first and foremost thing for a healthy bladder is don’t smoke,” says Dr. Arjun Balar, director of the genitourinary oncology program at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center.

“I think that’s an obvious suggestion for a number of reasons. But if we can eliminate cancer risks that are related to smoking, that’s probably the most important thing you can do,” Dr. Balar added.

WATCH: Understanding bladder cancer risk factors.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says tobacco smoke contains a mixture of more than 7,000 different chemicals, at least 70 of which are known to cause cancer.

Cigarette smoking is linked to about 80 to 90 percent of lung cancer deaths, and people who smoke cigarettes are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer or die from lung cancer than people who don’t smoke. Additionally, second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

---