Hi Beto, glad to know that you were able to sorted out the CT urogram insurance issue.
Moffitt cancer center website says " A mass (tumor) that is found on the bladder – the muscular sac in the pelvic region that stores urine – can sometimes be indicative of bladder cancer. In other cases, a bladder mass could be a benign (noncancerous) polyp, which is a small, cauliflower-like growth that can potentially turn into bladder cancer in the future."
moffitt.org/cancers/bladder-cancer/faqs/what-does-a-mass-on-the-bladder-mean/
It takes several years for a normal cell to become a cancer cell. It requires 3-20 accumulated mutations in protein-coding genes. It may take several years for one mutation to occur, and it make take another several years for another mutation to occur. A cancer can grow max 2mm on its own. New dedicated blood vessels need to be developed to provide oxygen and nutrition in blood to help the cancer cells continuing dividing (growing). So, it takes several years from a normal cell to become a cancer cell, and the cancer cell to divide to become the size which can be detected either by CT or cystoscopy. I think the tumor (benign or malignant) was there 4 months ago, but it was small enough that the urologist could not detect by cystoscopy.
According to a 1989 study by a French group, different cancer type showed different growth rate .
Doubling time
Embryonal tumors 27 days
Malignant lymphomas 29 days
Mesenchymal sarcomas 41 day
Squamous cell carcinomas 58 days
Adenocarcinomas 83 days
In terms of bladder cancer, a Israel group checked how fast a recurrent low grade tumor grow.
The result is as follows.
If the initial tumor size was less than 4 mm (32 patients), in average the recurred tumor grew about 5mm
3 each month.
If the initial tumor size was greater than 5 mm (6 patients), in average, the recurred tumor grew about 1000mm
3 each month.
It seems to indicate that the growth speed of bladder cancer differ among patients even if the tumors are same low grade.
www.europeanurology.com/article/S0302-2838(05)00850-X/fulltext
best