The lower urinary tract is made up of the bladder, urethra, and in males, the prostate. The bladder collects and stores urine, which has passed from the kidneys through the ureter. Once the bladder has reached its capacity of stored urine, the urine then exits the body through the urethra.

Bladder cancer occurs when the cells lining the inner wall of the bladder grow and multiply out of control until they become a mass of cancerous cells – a malignant tumor. In aggressive cases, cancer cells can spread to the deeper layers of the bladder wall, and even to other tissues and organs in the body such as the lymph nodes, bones, lungs, and liver.