Prognostic significance of tumor multifocality on outcomes in patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma after radical nephroureterectomy: A cohort study

Abstract

To identify the prognostic impact of tumor multifocality on upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) outcomes in patients treated with radical nephroureterectomy (RNU). Study included 342 consecutive patients with UTUC. Tumor multifocality was defined as the synchronous presence of 2 or more pathologically confirmed tumors in any upper urinary tract location. Cox regression analyses were used to address recurrence-free (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) estimates. Tumor multifocality was significantly associated with a history of previous non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (P < 0.001), tumor size (P < 0.001), gender (P = 0.009), tumor location (P = 0.005), and anemia (P = 0.01). The Kaplan–Meier method showed that tumor multifocality was significantly associated with worse recurrence-free survival (P < 0.001, log rank). Using multivariate analysis, tumor multifocality (HR, 2.86; 95% CI, 2.06 – 3.99; P < 0.001) was independently associated with recurrence free survival. During the follow-up, a total of 128 (37.4%) patients died, including 92 (28.2%) from UTUC. However, tumor multifocality was not associated with CSS (HR, 1.29; 95% CI, 0.89 – 1.96; P = 0.21) in univariate Cox regression analyses. Tumor stage (HR, 11.1; 95% CI, 3.64 – 33.8; P < 0.001), lymph node status (HR, 2.04, 95% CI, 1.05 – 3.94; P = 0.03) and preoperative anemia (HR, 3.50, 95% CI, 2.02 – 6.08; P < 0.001) were the only independent predictors associated with worse cancer-specific survival. Tumor multifocality is an independent prognostic factor of disease recurrence in patients treated with RNU for UTUC. Tumor multifocality is unable to predict cancer specific survival in a single-center series of consecutive patients who were treated with RNU.