Introduction: Clinical T1 (cT1) bladder cancer is associated with high rates of recurrence, upstaging, and progression. Guidelines recommend that these patients be treated with adjuvant intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin immunotherapy (BCG) or upfront radical cystectomy (RC). We analyzed the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to identify demographic and clinical determinants of guideline-based treatment (GBT) and RC.
Patients and methods: We identified 47,694 patients in the NCDB with cT1 bladder cancer diagnosed in 2004-2013. Those who did not receive any treatment or underwent primary chemotherapy were excluded. Mixed effects logistic regression adjusted for facility-level variation was used to identify factors associated with receipt of GBT.
Results: The median age of the cohort was 72 years (interquartile range, 63-79). Of the patients, 22.4% were female, 5.1% were African American, and 2.7% had variant histology. Nearly one-third of patients received GBT: 11,453 (24%) were initially treated with BCG and 3320 (7%) were initially treated with RC. Recent year of diagnosis (odds ratio [OR], 1.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.52-1.85; P < .001), treatment at an academic center (OR, 2.42; 95% CI, 2.27-2.59; P < .001), and private insurance status (OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.19-1.66; P < .001) were associated with increased odds of GBT. Of patients who received GBT, variant histology (OR, 5.89; 95% CI, 4.65-7.47; P < .001), and recent year of diagnosis (OR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.50-2.39; P < .001) were associated with greater odds of RC.
Conclusion: There is low treatment-guideline compliance for patients with cT1 disease. However, there appears to be a temporal trend toward increased use of GBT. Efforts should be made to understand why many cT1 bladder cancer patients do not receive GBT.
Keywords: Guideline adherence; Management; Non–muscle-invasive; Quality of health care.
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