[Lymph node metastases and ureteral obstructions as prognostic parameters for the percutaneous radiotherapy of the...

The results of a percutaneous radiotherapy of 136 patients with bladder carcinomas who were treated between 1966 and 1972 are presented in a retrospective study. Before the beginning of the treatment, the diagnosis of these patients had been verified by a lympho-cavo-urography. 21% of the patients had a pathological lymphogram and 40% a pathological urogram. The survival time of patients with normal and those with pathological lympho-cavo-urography showed a difference which was statistically significant (p less than 0.001). There was no patient with inhibited urinary defluxion and demonstrated lymph node metastases who lived longer than 21 months after the treatment. Exclusive percutaneous radiotherapy and primary total cystectomy cannot be considered as curative therapeutic methods. If metastases in the lymph nodes of the regio iliaca communis and paraaortal are demonstrated by lymphography, the prognosis is unfavourable and only palliative methods are justified.