Urinary Diversion Can Improve the Chance of Implementing New Therapeutic Lines in Patients with Malignant Ureteral...

Malignant ureteral obstruction is generally associated with a poor disease prognosis; therefore, managing these cases is challenging. We describe our experience in treating malignant ureteral obstruction with urinary diversion and the impact of these procedures on the indication for new antineoplastic therapy and survival.

We retrospectively reviewed the data of patients with advanced cancer associated with malignant ureteral obstruction who underwent urinary diversion at three tertiary institutions between January 2013 and July 2022.

This study included 420 patients (mean age, 58.7 years (range, 18-90 years) with a mean follow-up of 20.3 months. Cervical (36.2%) and bladder cancers (18.6%) were the most prevalent primary neo-plastic sites. The mean creatinine values measured before diversion, 30 days after surgery, and most recently were 3.45, 1.84, and 2.59 mg/dL, respectively. In total, 300 patients (71.4%) received antineoplastic treatment, 195 received palliative treatment, and 105 received curative treatment. After an average of 251.87 postoperative days, 265 (64%) patients died. The mean overall survival was 610.76 days. Patients with prostate and cervical neoplasms had the most prolonged overall survival (573.13 and 549.28 days, respectively), whereas patients with bladder and colorectal cancer had the worst overall survival (480.25 and 370.53 days, respectively).

Urinary diversion improves kidney function and opens a therapeutic window for a new line of antineoplastic therapy that provides a cure or increases patient survival.