Is your cancer patient colour-blind? It could make a huge difference for this type of cancer

Healthcare professionals may need to pay closer attention to patients who are colour blind and have bladder cancer. A recent study suggests this group has a lower chance of survival compared to those with normal colour vision.An early warning sign of bladder and colorectal cancers is blood in the urine or stool. People with colour blindness, or colour vision deficiency, may miss that symptom due to a problem identifying the colour red. This is especially important when blood in the urine is not coupled with pain symptoms. It could cause the patient to delay seeking medical care.Researchers from the United States conducted a retrospective study using health records of 135 patients with bladder cancer and colour vision deficiency and 135 patients with bladder cancer but full colour vision. Those with colour vision deficiency had a 52% higher mortality rate than those with normal colour vision in the 20 years since diagnosis.In contrast, a comparison of 187 patients with colorectal cancer with colour vision deficiency and 187 patients without colour vision deficiency showed no significant difference in survival between the two groups. The authors note that colorectal cancer often presents with other symptoms besides blood in the stool where bladder cancer usually presents solely with painless hematuria in the early stages of the disease. The difference in survival between the bladder cancer and colorectal cancer patients with colour vision deficiency could also be because there are screening programs for colorectal cancer but not for bladder cancer.The researchers state that because bladder cancer usually only presents with painless blood in the urine, “the onus of disease detection is placed almost entirely on the patient observing blood in the urine.” People with colour vision deficiency may not recognize the symptom and delay seeking medical care, leading to more advanced disease upon first presentation.The new study adds to previous research from the U.K. found that patients with bladder cancer had more invasive disease if they had colour vision deficiency compared to those patients with normal colour vision.The study was published in Nature Health.

Is your cancer patient colour-blind? It could make a huge difference for this type of cancer

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