Risk factors and prognosis of intravesical recurrence after surgical management of upper tract urothelial carcinoma: A 30-year single centre experience

OBJECTIVE: To review the incidence, predictors and prognosis of bladder cancer recurrence after management of upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed patients who were surgically treated for UTUC from 1983 to 2013. The tumours were categorised according to the 1997 Tumour-Node-Metastasis (TNM) staging and the three-tiered World Health Organization grading systems. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of any intravesical recurrence after treatment. We studied the possible risk factors that may contribute to development of intravesical recurrence, as well as the prognosis of the patients who had recurrence. RESULTS: In all, 297 patients were eligible for analysis. Recurrent bladder tumours occurred in 139 patients (46.8%). The mean (range) time to recurrence after surgery was 33 (6–300) months. Neither sex, past history of bladder tumours, concomitant bladder tumour, the side of the tumour, UTUC stage, grade, presence of carcinoma in situ or multicentricity at the time of diagnosis of UTUC, were significant predictors of intravesical tumour recurrence. Ureteric tumour was the only identified risk factor (P = 0.02). Post-treatment bladder recurrence was a significant predictor of later urethral recurrence (P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: In our present series, bladder cancer recurrence of urothelial malignancy occurred in nearly half of the patients after surgical management of UTUC. Ureteric tumour was the only identifiable risk factor, thus patients with ureteric tumours may benefit from prophylactic intravesical chemoimmunotherapy. Bladder recurrence does not appear to affect the cancer-specific survival after surgical management of UTUC.