Radiation therapy outcomes in muscle invasive urinary bladder cancer: A single institution experience

To audit the survival outcomes and loco-regional control in muscle invasive urinary bladder cancer patients treated with external beam radiation therapy (RT).

From November 2008 through December 2011, 50 consecutively diagnosed muscle invasive urinary bladder carcinoma (T2-4a N0-2, M0) patients were included in this retrospective study. All these patients received external beam RT to a median dose of 60 Gy (range 30-66 Gy), and were not suitable for radical surgery due to patients' preference or medical comorbidities. A stepwise procedure using proportional hazard regression was used to identify prognostic factors with respect to survival.

Completion trans-urethral resection of bladder tumor was done in 38 (76%) patients of the cohort and 47 (94%) had transitional cell carcinoma on histopathology. Clinical stage T2 was diagnosed in 40 (80%) patients. The median follow-up for the entire cohort was 14 ± 8.9 months (range 1-36 months). In conclusion, 24 patients (48%) were free of disease, 5 patients (10%) had residual disease, and 13 patients (26%) had died of disease. Two-year and 3 year overall survival of intact bladder for the entire cohort was 58% and 43.6%, respectively. Cox regression modeling strongly suggested clinical stage (P = 0.01) and RT dose (P = 0.001) as being predictors for overall survival.

RT shows reliable outcomes and excellent compliance in this advanced disease. Prescribing a higher RT dose could potentially correlate to better intact bladder control rates while maintaining good quality of life in selected patients.