Recurrence patterns of bladder transitional cell carcinoma after radical cystectomy

Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) is widely accepted as an effective imaging modality in monitoring for bladder cancer recurrence after radical cystectomy. Elucidating the pattern of bladder cancer recurrence on CT can increase the diagnostic accuracy.

To evaluate the recurrence patterns of transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder and the factors associated with cancer recurrence.

One hundred and forty-nine consecutive patients (mean age, 66.55 years; range, 32-86 years) who underwent preoperative contrast-enhanced CT and radical cystectomy were included in this study. The presence, site, and time of tumor recurrence were recorded retrospectively by two radiologists in a consensus fashion. The association of tumor recurrence and tumor factors (T stage, lymph node metastasis, nuclear grade, and tumor diameter) were also evaluated using multiple logistic regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier statistics.

Tumor recurrence occurred in 60 patients (40.3%) with a mean time of 14 months (range, 1-64 months). The sites of recurrence included the operation site (n = 20), lymph node (n = 20), bone (n = 11), liver (n = 6), lung (n = 5), upper urinary tract (n = 4), colon (n = 3), adrenal gland (n = 2), peritoneum (n = 1), abdominal wall (n = 1), psoas muscle (n = 1), and penile skin (n = 1). Tumor recurrence was found to be associated with advanced T stage (P = 0.002) and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001).

Transitional cell carcinomas of the bladder recur more frequently at the operation site and lymph node, and T-stage and lymph node metastasis are closely associated with tumor recurrence.