Treatment of T4 bladder cancer patients remains a clinical challenge. Conservative management is often insufficient regarding local control, neoadjuvant chemotherapy delays definite treatment while leading to increased therapy-associated morbidity and mortality during the course of the disease. Primary cystectomy has also been reported to be associated with a high complication rate and unsatisfactory clinical efficacy. Herein, we report postoperative outcome, including therapy-related complications, in 20 T4 bladder cancer patients subjected to primary cystectomy. Twenty patients underwent radical cystectomy for T4 bladder cancer. At the time of surgery, 8 patients had regional lymph node metastases. The median postoperative follow-up was 13 months for the whole group. Mean duration of postoperative hospitalization was 19 days. Ten patients received no intra- or postoperative blood transfusions, whereas an average number of 3 blood units were administered in the remaining cases. Major therapy-associated complications were paresthesia affecting the lower extremities (n = 3) as well as insignificant pulmonary embolism, enterocutaneous fistulation and acute renal failure in one patient, respectively. At the time of data evaluation, 11 patients were still alive after a follow-up of 20 months. Four patients >or=70 years at the time of cystectomy were still alive after 11, 22 and 31 months following surgery, respectively. The current data demonstrate primary cystectomy for T4 bladder cancer as a technically feasible approach that is associated with a tolerable therapy-related morbidity. Additionally, satisfying clinical outcome is observed even in a substantial number of elderly patients.