OBJECTIVES: Bladder cancer (BC) is a disease with a high recurrence rate, necessitating invasive, repeated treatments that can meaningfully impact patient health-related quality of life (HRQoL).  The goal of this review was to summarize the BC HRQoL literature in order to assess the impact of BC by stage and treatment. METHODS: A systematic literature search of studies indexed in PubMed was conducted without language or publication year limitations.  Due to the large volume of literature, subsequent review was refined to studies published since 2005, excluding reports utilizing single-use HRQoL measures without evidence of validation. RESULTS: A review of ~1,700 abstracts yielded a final set of 62 peer-reviewed articles (published 2005 – 2014).  Eleven HRQoL measures (8 disease-specific, 3 generic) were identified (EORTC QLQ-C30 and SF-36 most commonly used, in 25 and 21 studies, respectively).  BC-specific modules such as the EORTC QLQ-NMIBC24 were included less frequently, with no BC-specific module in more than 8 studies.  The majority of studies were of retrospective, cross-sectional study design. HRQoL impact of radical cystectomy for muscle invasive BC (MIBC), which is invasive and requires lifetime urinary diversion, was most commonly studied.   In contrast, there is minimal literature on HRQoL of patients with advanced/metastatic urothelial BC and non-muscle invasive BC (NMIBC).  Although longitudinal studies have been conducted in both MIBC and NMIBC, the interpretation of the results is hampered by study design issues (such as lack of baseline HRQoL data, insufficient follow-up duration, infrequent HRQoL assessment, and/or small sample sizes) and inconsistency in HRQoL instrument. CONCLUSIONS: While there is a substantial body of literature describing the impact of BC on HRQoL, particularly MIBC, methodological rigor is lacking, limiting interpretation and full assessment of the impact of BC by disease stage and treatment. Further, HRQoL assessment in NMIBC and advanced/metastatic disease is rare and warrants additional research effort.