Is there a gender effect in bladder cancer? A population-based study of practice and outcomes

The incidence of bladder cancer varies by gender. Whether differences exist between women and men in extent of disease, treatment, and outcome is not well-described. We evaluate gender differences in bladder cancer using a population-based cohort.

Electronic records of treatment were linked to the population-based Ontario Cancer Registry to identify all patients with bladder cancer treated with cystectomy or radical radiotherapy (RT) in Ontario between 1994 and 2008. We compare extent of disease at time of cystectomy, treatment, and outcomes between women and men.

In total, 5259 patients with bladder cancer were treated with cystectomy or radical RT; of these, 25% (n = 1296) were women. There was no gender difference in the proportion of patients treated with cystectomy (75% of women [974/1296], 73% of men [2905/3963], p = 0.189). At the time of cystectomy, women were more likely to have muscle-invasive disease (86% [836/974] vs. 80% [2335/2905], p < 0.001), but less likely to have lymph nodes dissected (68% [664/974] vs. 76% [2210/2905], p < 0.001]. Among the 2944 patients with muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma treated with cystectomy, use of neoadjuvant (5% vs. 4%, p = 0.419) and adjuvant chemotherapy (18% vs. 20%, p = 0.190) did not differ significantly between genders. Five-year cancer-specific survival and overall survival of the full cohort did not differ between women and men (38% vs. 39%, p = 0.522; 33% vs. 33%, p = 0.795).

This population-based cohort did not demonstrate any substantial differences in extent of disease, treatment, or outcome between women and men treated with cystectomy or radical RT for bladder cancer.