Introduction: The objective of this study was to examine the overall survival (OS) in patients diagnosed with high-grade T1 non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with early radical cystectomy versus local treatment of the primary tumor, defined as endoscopic management with or without intravesical chemotherapy or immunotherapy.
Patients and methods: We identified 4900 patients with histologically confirmed, clinically non-metastatic high-grade T1 bladder cancer undergoing surgical intervention using the National Cancer Database for the period 2010 to 2015. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine predictors for the receipt of early radical cystectomy (defined as radical cystectomy within 90 days of diagnosis). We then employed multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models and Kaplan-Meier curves to evaluate the OS according to surgical treatment (early radical cystectomy vs. local treatment).
Results: A minority (23.7%) of patients underwent early radical cystectomy. Independent predictors of undergoing early radical cystectomy included lower age, White race, and lower comorbidity status. The median OS was 74.0 months for patients diagnosed with high-grade T1 bladder cancer. The 1- and 5-year survival rates of patients undergoing early radical cystectomy were 94.8% and 71.0%, whereas they were 85.2% and 52.4%, for patients undergoing initial local treatment, respectively (P < .001). Compared with patients undergoing local treatment, patients undergoing early radical cystectomy had a lower risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.67-0.91; P = .002).
Conclusion: In this cohort of patients presenting with high-grade T1 non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, we found that early radical cystectomy was associated with an OS benefit compared with initial local treatment.
Keywords: Bladder cancer; NMIBC; Pelvic lymph node dissection; Radical Cystectomy; Transurethral resection.
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