Ureteral Involvement and Diabetes Increase the Risk of Subsequent Bladder Recurrence after Nephroureterectomy for Upper Urinary Tract Urothelial Carcinoma

Objectives. To investigate the prognostic factors for bladder recurrence after radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) in patients with upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUT-UC). Methods. From 1994 to 2012, 695 patients with UUT-UC treated with RNU were enrolled in National Taiwan University Medical Center. Among them, 532 patients with no prior bladder UC history were recruited for analysis. We assessed the impact of potentially prognostic factors on bladder recurrence after RNU. Results. The median follow-up period was 47.8 months. In the Cox model, ureteral involvement and diabetes mellitus (DM) were significantly associated with a higher bladder recurrence rate in the multivariate analysis (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.838; P = 0.003 and HR: 1.821; P = 0.010, resp.). In the Kaplan-Meier analysis, DM patients with concomitant ureteral UC experienced about a threefold increased risk of bladder recurrence as compared to those without both factors (HR: 3.222; P < 0.001). Patients with either of the two risk factors experienced about a twofold increased risk as compared to those without both factors (with DM, HR: 2.184, P = 0.024; with ureteral involvement, HR: 2.006, P = 0.003). Conclusions. Ureteral involvement and DM are significantly related to bladder recurrence after RNU in patients with UUT-UC.