Role of external radiation therapy in urinary cancers

Invasive urinary tumors are relatively rare and their treatment may cause important changes in urinary, sexual, and social functions. A systematic review of external radiation therapy studies in urinary cancers has been carried out. This synthesis of the literature is based on data from meta-analysis, randomized and prospective trials, and retrospective studies. There are few controlled clinical trials using adjuvant or radical radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy in kidney, ureter, and urethra cancers; there are several reports of muscle-invasive bladder cancer using multimodality treatment: intravesical surgery and neo-adjuvant chemotherapy to radiotherapy or concomitant radiochemotherapy with organ preservation. The conclusions reached for renal cancer are controversial; urethra and ureter cancers data are few and inconclusive; sufficient data now exist in literature to demonstrate that conservative management with organ preservation, for muscle-invasive bladder cancer, is a valid alternative to radical cystectomy, viewed as the gold standard.