[Palliative surgery for metastatic urothelial cancer]

Palliative surgery is performed in order to relieve symptoms as well as to increase survival in selected tumour entities. For urothelial cancer, its role is limited and clinical data are limited, too. Yet with better responses being achieved to systemic therapy, more and more surgical procedures are being carried out in the form of individualised treatment concepts and are then published as case series. For patients with low metastatic load, or if the tumour is restricted to lymph nodes inside and outside the pelvis, as well as for singular pulmonary metastasis, there seems to be a survival benefit in select cases. Calculation of risks and benefits is difficult and, for now, should be reconsidered for every individual patient. Therefore, prospective trials are difficult to perform and should not be expected to exist in the future. This review aims to summarise the most important publications on this topic.