ESOU18: Is There a Role for Treatment of Metastatic Bladder Cancer?

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (UroToday.com) The burden of cancer is shifting to the elderly population in the USA and in the westernized world. The success rate of radical cystectomy, presented as 5 year survival rate, is currently 92% for Pt0 disease and 50% for Pt4 disease. However, when there are involved lymph nodes, the 5 year survival falls to 35%.

The issue of how to treat metastatic bladder cancer is controversial and still debated. When attempting to perform metastatectomy for these patients, the results are generally favorable. There has been some work assessing the results of postchemotherapy metastatectomy of involved lymph nodes. These studies showed that in well selected cases, patients who underwent metastatectom, had a survival advantage in removal of disease residuals. To ensure maximal beneficial effects for patients treated with metstatectomy, patients should have a WHO/ECOG status of 0-1, the interval from primary therapy to metastatectomy should be longer than 1 year, the metastasis should be a single resect able lesion and patients should be treated and followed by a multimodal approach.

New immunotherapy drugs also hold the potential of advancing the care of metastatic bladder cancer patients, and molecular subtypes of bladder cancer might help us understand which patients have the best chance after the appropriate treatment.

Speaker: Arnuf Stenzl, MD Professor, Director of Department of Urology University of Tübingen Medical School Tübingen Germany

Written By: Hanan Goldberg, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow (SUO), University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre @GoldbergHanan at The 15th Meeting of the EAU Section of Oncological Urology ESOU18 - January 26-28, 2018 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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