Small cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy: results in five cases

Small cell carcinoma of the bladder is a rare and highly aggressive tumor. We report our experience with 5 consecutive patients treated with systemic chemotherapy and adjuvant radiotherapy. TNM stages were T2N0M0 (1 patient), T3aN0M0 (3 patients) and T3bN1M0 (1 patient). The chemotherapy protocol was the one used with small cell lung cancer patients at our hospital: six cycles of alternating PE/CAV (PE: cisplatin, etoposide; CAV: cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine). Cystoscopy was performed after the third cycle. Four out of 5 patients were free of macroscopic disease. The fifth patient had persistent lesions and was treated by cystectomy. This patient developed a local-regional recurrence 4 months later and died shortly afterwards. Four patients completed the planned six cycles. Cystoscopy with bladder biopsy was then performed on each, and all had complete remission. They were treated with external radiotherapy (45 Gy pelvis, 60 Gy bladder). One patient had invasive bladder recurrence 12 months later and cystectomy was performed. At the last follow-up 42 months later, he was alive and well. The other 3 patients were alive and free of disease 60, 48 and 27 months after diagnosis, respectively. These results are clearly more favorable than previous reports. Cystectomy might, therefore, be unnecessary in some patients.