[Parameters of incurability in urinary bladder cancer]

Curative treatment of bladder cancer is limited to superficial tumors (Ta-T2). Advanced stages (T3a + T3b) can be treated only palliatively even when confined to the bladder (N0, M0). Nevertheless the differentiation between curable and incurable tumors is difficult. The classification of patients into the two different categories is usually done on the basis of tumor infiltration and lymph node involvement. In this retrospective study all available data of patients with bladder cancer were evaluated for their prognostic reliability in order to obtain a safe basis for further therapeutic approaches. The principal aim was to define parameters of reliable prognostic significance to prevent under- or overtreatment during the entire course of the disease.