Prognostic factors for vesical relapse in patients with upper urothelium tumours treated with surgery

To identify the prognostic factors for vesical relapse in patients with tumours of the upper urothelium treated with surgery.

We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients with tumours of the upper urothelium who underwent surgery between 1999 and 2011 at our centre (139 patients). We collected demographic, clinical, diagnostic and pathological variables, as well as the treatment, complications and progression. A descriptive analysis was performed using the chi-squared test for categorical variables and the ANOVA test for continuous variables. We also performed a univariate and multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model. Statistical significance was considered when P<.05. All calculations were performed with SPSS Statistics version 21.

During the follow-up, 26.6% of the patients (37 cases) showed vesical relapse. Some 19.6% of the patients with no history of bladder tumours showed a bladder tumour relapse compared with 48.6% of the patients with a history of bladder tumours (P<.001). In the multivariate analysis, only the presence of bladder tumours prior to or concomitant with the upper urinary tract tumour diagnosis was identified as an independent predictor of bladder tumour relapse (P=.007).

In our series, only the presence of a prior or synchronous bladder tumour behaved as an independent predictor of bladder tumour relapse in patients with tumours of the upper urothelium treated with surgery.