Life Insurance for Someone with Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer and life insurance

Bladder cancer usually begins in the cells that line the inside of the bladder. Fortunately most are caught at an early stage when the cancer is most treatable. Even with cancer that is caught early there is a good chance of recurrence.

Ninety percent of urinary bladder cancer is transitional cell carcinoma. This means it occurs in the transitional epithelium – a tissue that lines the inner surface of the organ. Other less common types include squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma, and sarcoma. Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinomas have a poorer prognosis than transitional cell cancers. The tumors have a tendency to recur following removal and may become more invasive upon recurrence.

The major prognostic features are the depth of invasion into the bladder wall (stage) and the degree of cellular differentiation of the tumor (grade). A deeper level of invasion means a higher tumor stage and a poorer prognosis. While a superficial tumor will have a better prognosis. Patients with the greatest risk for recurrence are those with large, high grade (II & III), or multiple tumors present on initial presentation.

See more information about survival rates

Expected Rating for Life Insurance:

The rating for tumors will depend on the stage, grade, size, and number occurrences.

Someone with ‘very low risk tumor’, with or without recurrence, could get a rating as good a standard.

High risk tumors could result in a decline. So they may have to apply for a ‘guaranteed issue’ plan. These plans have limited death benefits the first few years and have limited face amounts.

Life insurance companies vary greatly in their risk tolerance and experience with handling these types of cases. Therefore, it is best to ‘shop’ the market for the best available rate. In order to render tentative a tentative offer underwriters will want to know the following: treatment type and time frame, stage, lymph node involvement, recurrences, and date of diagnosis. You can find a lot of the required information in the pathology report(s).