Post Operative Radiotherapy in Bladder Cancer

Abstract EN

Purpose : to investigate the effect of adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy after radical cystectomy on the disease free survival, local control and distant metastases of bladder cancer patients.

Patients and Methods : Eighty-nine patients with bladder cancer presented to El-Minia Oncology Center between July 1998 to March 2001 were treated by radical cystectomy or anterior pelvic exoneration plus postoperative radiotherapy.

Results : the most commenly encountered pathological subtype in this study was squamous cell carcinoma 49.4 % while transitional cell carcinoma was reported in 34.8 % of cases.

The commonest pathological stage was P3, which was encountered in 41.6 % of patients followed by P2b 29.2 % and P4a 10 % (UICC, 1997).

Pathological pelvic lymph node involvement was reported in 22.5 % of patients of the present study.

The 3-year disease free survival in the whole group was 64 ± 10 % while the 3-year local control rate was 78.6 + 9 %.

The 3-year disease free survival rates for squamous cell carcinoma was 73 ± 14 % and 53 ± 15 % for transitional cell carcinoma.

The disease free survival was 66 ± 13 % for P2b carcinoma and 83 ± 7 % for stage P3.

Patients having the pathological stage P4a had a 2-year disease free survival rates of 75 ± 21 %.

The 2-year disease free survival rate was 83.3 % for lymph node negative patients and 57 ± 15 % for lymph node positive patients.

Conclusions : these results emphasized the high rate of disease-free survival and local control rates obtained by adding postoperative radiotherapy to cystectomies patients.

The value of post-operative radiotherapy was illustrated in all tumor types and all tested stages.