Despite radical cystectomy, 40% of the patients with locally advanced disease and more than 80% of the patients with lymphatic metastases die tumor related. This provides the rationale for additional effective systemic therapy following surgery. In addition, previous surgery and consecutive histopathological or cell-based evaluation offers the advantage to expose only those patients to adjuvant systemic chemotherapy, who belong to a defined high-risk group. Regional lymph node metastases range from less than 10% in T1 to nearly 33% in T3/T4 lesions. Therefore, the extend of the lymph node dissection as an integral part of the surgical treatment gains importance. As pathological assessment of an adequate number of lymph nodes increases the likelihood of proper staging and decisions on further therapy depend on accurate staging, a standardization of lymphadenectomy is desirable. This paper provides an overview on the current concepts of the use of adjuvant systemic chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced urothelial cancer.
Copyright 2003 S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg