Bladder cancer studies in Taiwan raise the question of whether aristolochic acid from herbal medicines may be affecting bladder cancer.
This study compares survival outcomes from conventional treatments, including only doing transurethral resection of bladder tumour.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26074367
From the graphs there appears to be less difference between the different treatment outcomes for patients from the Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, compared to the differences for patients on the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database of
Taiwan. I am wondering whether patients from the Tri-Service General Hospital may have had less exposure to herbal medicine.
This study refers to the aristolochic acid problem:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27052114.
Another study gives very poor survival (8% at 5 years) for patients who had TURB alone. However looking at the graph a large portion of the deaths occurred in the first 8 or 9 months, after which time the extra deaths from radiotherapy appear to be worse.
Once again could it be exposrue to aristolochic acid affecting the outcome?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24637186
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