Patterns of recurrence in bladder cancer treated by irradiation and/or cystectomy

Abstract

Between 1949 and 1971, 451 patients with bladder cancer were treated by radiation therapy and/or radical cystectomy at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Radical cystectomy alone was the treatment for 137 patients in Group 1. In Group 2, 109 patients received radiation therapy to an average tumor dose of 6000 rad in 6 weeks ± 1 year before radical cystectomy for persistent, recurrent or new lesions. Planned preoperative irradiation consisted of either 4000 rad in 4 weeks for 119 patients in Group 3, or 2000 rad in 1 week for 86 patients in Group 4, ± 6 weeks and 2 days, respectively, before radical cystectomy. The determinate over-all distant and/or local recurrence rate was 49% for Group 1 and 37–45% for Groups 2–4. Local recurrence alone occurred in 28% of Group 1 patients and 14–16% of those in Groups 2–4. Distant metastases developed in 21% of Group 1 patients and 22–28% of Group 2–4 patients. A reduced incidence of pelvic recurrence was associated with radiation-induced stage reduction for Group 2–4 clinically high and low stage tumors, especially when the histologic grade was high. Similar frequencies of extrapelvic metastases in the four groups were maintained in clinically low and high stage tumors of low or high histological grade.