Metastatic urothelial carcinoma of the bladder, ureter, or renal pelvis is a highly aggressive disease with poor outcomes. Even with platinum-based chemotherapy, the median overall survival is 15 months and the 5-year survival is only 15%.
The role of metastasectomy in urothelial carcinoma is currently undefined.
To examine the use and outcomes of metastasectomy in older patients with urothelial carcinoma in a large population-based dataset.
We conducted a SEER-Medicare study, and from 70,648 urothelial carcinoma patients who met inclusion criteria, we identified 497 patients who had at least 1 metastasectomy during a median follow-up of 40 months.
The primary study endpoints were metastasectomy use, the length of stay for metastasectomy, complications, and overall survival following metastasectomy. Secondary outcomes included 30-day mortality and readmission rate following metastasectomy.
We identified 497 patients meeting inclusion criteria who had at least 1 metastasectomy during the study period including 24 patients who had more than 1 procedure resulting in a total of 523 metastasectomies. The median overall survival after the first metastasectomy was 19 months (95% CI: 15-23; interquartile range: 4-74). In this selected patient population, over a third of patients were alive at 3 years. In the 476 patients who had evaluable discharge dates, the median length of stay after metastasectomy was 7 days (IQR: 4-12), and 10% of patients had at least 1 complication within 30 days of discharge. Thirty-day mortality after metastasectomy was 10% (n = 53/523) and was largely driven by the mortality associated with resections of urothelial cancer brain metastases.
In well-selected patients with urothelial carcinoma with a reasonable life expectancy, resection of metastatic lesions is safe and is associated with long-term survival and potential cures.
Urologic oncology. 2017 Oct 04 [Epub ahead of print]
Bishoy M Faltas, Renee L Gennarelli, Elena Elkin, Daniel P Nguyen, Jim Hu, Scott T Tagawa
Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY., Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY., Department of Urology, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY., Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY; Department of Urology, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY. Electronic address: .