Impact of Preoperative Plasma Potassium Levels on Oncological Outcomes, Major Complications, and 30-Day Mortality in Bladder Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Cystectomy

Jakob Klemm; Shahrokh F Shariat; Ekaterina Laukhtina; Pawel Rajwa; Malte W Vetterlein; Victor M Schuettfort; Markus von Deimling; Roland Dahlem; Margit Fisch; Michael Rink

doi:10.1016/j.clgc.2024.102079

Impact of Preoperative Plasma Potassium Levels on Oncological Outcomes, Major Complications, and 30-Day Mortality in Bladder Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Cystectomy

Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2024 Mar 21:102079. doi: 10.1016/j.clgc.2024.102079. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany; Department of Urology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: j.klemm@uke.de.
² Department of Urology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Hourani Center for Applied Scientific Research, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan; Karl Landsteiner Institute of Urology and Andrology, Vienna, Austria; Research center for Evidence Medicine, Urology department Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX; Department of Urology, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
³ Department of Urology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Institute for Urology and Reproductive Health, Sechenov University, Moscow, Russia.
⁴ Department of Urology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Department of Urology, Medical University of Silesia, Zabrze, Poland.
⁵ Department of Urology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
⁶ Department of Urology, Katholisches Marienkrankenhaus, Hamburg, Germany.

PMID: 38614853
DOI: 10.1016/j.clgc.2024.102079

Abstract

Introduction and objectives: We examined the impact of preoperative plasma potassium levels (PPLs) on outcomes in patients undergoing radical cystectomy (RC) for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB), hypothesizing that potassium imbalances might influence outcomes.

Patients and methods: In this retrospective study, 501 UCB patients undergoing RC from 2009 to 2017 at a tertiary center were analyzed. Blood samples collected a week prior to surgery defined normal and abnormal PPL based on institutional standards. We assessed overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), postoperative complications, 30-day mortality, and non-organ confined disease. Kaplan-Meier estimates, Cox proportional hazards, logistic regression, and decision curve analyses (DCA) were employed.

Results: 63 (13%) patients had abnormal preoperative PPLs, with 50 (10%) elevated and 13 (2.5%) decreased. In a 59 months median follow-up, 152 (31%) had disease recurrence, 197 (39%) died from any cause, and 119 (24%) from UCB. Multivariable cox regression analyses adjusting for perioperative parameters demonstrated abnormal PPL was associated with worse OS (HR=1.9, P=0.009), CSS (HR=2.8, P<0.001) and RFS (HR=2.1; P=0.007). Elevated preoperative PPLs also demonstrated significant associations with adverse outcomes in OS, CSS, and RFS (all P<0.05). In multivariable logistic regression analyses, abnormal and elevated PPLs were not associated with 30-day mortality, major 30-day postoperative complications, positive nodal disease, pT3/4 stage, and non-organ confined disease (all P>0.05).

Conclusion: Abnormal and elevated preoperative PPLs correlate with adverse oncologic outcomes in UCB patients treated with RC. Pending external validation, preoperative PPLs might be a cost-effective, easily obtainable supplemental biomarker for enriching accuracy of outcome prediction in this highly variable maladie.

Keywords: Bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection; Electrolyte disorder; Oncologic outcome; Urothelial bladder cancer.