Purpose: Determining which patients are at risk for prostatic urethral involvement of urothelial carcinoma may alter assessment of the prostatic urethra before radical cystectomy and ultimately influence the choice of urinary diversion. We determined risk factors predictive of prostatic urethral involvement using preoperative bladder tumor characteristics in male patients who underwent radical cystoprostatectomy due to urothelial carcinoma of the bladder.
Materials and methods: We reviewed 192 consecutive radical cystectomy specimens from men with transitional cell carcinoma from June 1995 to June 2000. The prostatic urethra in each specimen was analyzed and urethral involvement was characterized as carcinoma in situ, intraductal invasion or prostatic stromal invasion. We then examined which clinical bladder tumor characteristics correlated with the incidence and extent of prostatic urethral involvement by performing multiple variable analysis.
Results: Prostatic urethral involvement was evident in 30 of the 192 patients (15.6%). Of the 80 patients with carcinoma in situ in the bladder 25 (31.3%) had concomitant prostatic urethral involvement with carcinoma, whereas only 5 (4.5%) of the 112 with no evidence of carcinoma in situ had prostatic urethral involvement. Likewise 25 of the 72 patients (34.7%) with multifocal tumors had concomitant prostatic urethral involvement with carcinoma, whereas only 5 (4.2%) of the 120 with no evidence of multifocality had prostatic urethral involvement. In the multiple variable logistic regression model the odds of prostatic urethral involvement were 12 and 15-fold greater when carcinoma in situ and tumor multifocality were present, respectively.
Conclusions: Carcinoma in situ and/or tumor multifocality are valuable prognostic indicators of prostatic urethral involvement. However, in their absence prostatic urethral involvement was rare. Ultimately the extent of prostatic urethral involvement may influence decisions, such as the choice of urinary diversion and need for urethrectomy, in men undergoing radical cystectomy.