Are urothelial carcinomas of the upper urinary tract a distinct entity from urothelial carcinomas of the urinary bladder? Behavior of urothelial carcinoma after radical surgery with respect to anatomical location: a case control study

Abstract

Abstract

Background To compare the prognosis of upper urinary tract (UUT)-urothelial carcinoma (UC) and UC of the bladder (UCB) by pathological staging in patients treated with radical surgeries.

Methods The study population comprised 335 and 302 consecutive radical surgery cases performed between 1991 and 2010 for UUT-UC and UCB, respectively. Five-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates were analyzed. The median follow-up period of all subjects was 59.3months (range, 0.1–261.0months).

Results No difference was observed in median patient age, distribution of pathologic T stage, or rates of positive surgical margin between the two groups. The UUT-UC group had significantly more frequent hydronephrosis than the USB group (48.1% vs. 20.2%, p < 0.001). However, the UUT-UC group showed significantly less frequent grade III tumors (28.1% vs. 58.6%, p < 0.001), lymphovascular invasion (18.8% vs. 35.8%, p < 0.001), and associated carcinoma in situ (9.0% vs. 21.9%, p < 0.001) than the UCB group. Five year RFS rates in the UUT-UC and UCB groups were 77.0% and 75.9%, respectively (p = 0.546). No significant difference in RFS rate was observed between pathological T stage subgroups. Five year CSS rates in the UUT-UC and UCB groups were 76.1% and 76.2%, respectively (p = 0.462). No significant difference was observed in CSS rate between the pathologic T stage subgroups.

Conclusions UUT-UC and UCB showed comparable prognosis at identical stages. However, our results should be verified in a prospective study due to the retrospective study design in this study.