Comparison between short-course high-dose preoperative irradiation with immediate radical cystectomy and salvage...

Between 1976 and 1983, 70 patients who underwent cystectomy for transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder were retrospectively divided into two groups: 39 patients were treated by a protocol using 2,000 rad of radiation over a period of 5 days followed by immediate cystectomy (group 1); 31 patients who failed to be cured by definitive radiotherapy of 6,000 rad were treated by salvage cystectomy (group 2). The 5-year disease-specific survival rate was not significantly different in the two groups of patients (64.5 and 65.5%). The postoperative early complication rates were similar as well (36.8% in group 1 and 35.5% in group 2). One patient of the group treated with 2,000 rad died 19 days after surgery, giving an operative mortality of 1.4%. We conclude that there is a continuing role for salvage cystectomy after irradiation failure. One-stage salvage cystectomy has a relatively low morbidity and should be performed early after failure of definitive irradiation.