Comparison of trimodality therapy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with radical cystectomy for the survival of muscle-invasive bladder cancer: a population-based analysis

BACKGROUND: Trimodality therapy (TMT) is a mature alternative to radical cystectomy (RC) for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) who seek to preserve their primary bladder or are inoperable due to comorbidities. To date, there has been increasing evidence of the effectiveness of TMT as an alternative to RC. In contrast, no literature has stated the effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with RC (NAC + RC) compared with TMT. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare the prognosis between patients receiving TMT and NAC + RC. METHODS: The clinicopathological characteristics of patients with T2-4aN0M0 MIBC were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models and Kaplan‒Meier survival curves were used for the survival analysis. Propensity-score matching (PSM) was applied to determine the differences between the two groups. The primary outcome was cancer-specific survival (CSS), and the secondary outcome was overall survival (OS). RESULTS: In total, 1,175 patients with MIBC who underwent TMT (n = 822) or NAC + RC (n = 353) were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. After 1:1 PSM, the final patient sample included 303 pairs. The prognosis of patients receiving NAC + RC was significantly better than that of patients receiving TMT in both unmatched and matched cohorts (5-year CSS: before PSM, 75.4% vs. 50.6%, P < 0.0001; after PSM, 76.3% vs. 49.5%, P < 0.0001; 5-year OS: before PSM, 71.7% vs. 37.4%, P < 0.0001; after PSM, 71.7% vs. 31.4%, P < 0.0001). The survival advantages of NAC + RC remained remarkable in the stratified analysis of most factors after PSM. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that being older than 68 years old, unmarried, grade III/IV, T3-4a stage, and undergoing TMT independently correlated with poor OS. CONCLUSION: Thus, in this study, patients with MIBC receiving NAC + RC presented with a better prognosis than those receiving TMT.