Survival Outcome of Partial Cystectomy versus Transurethral Bladder Tumor Resection in T1 High-Grade Bladder Cancer Patients: A Propensity Score Matching Study

PURPOSE: Partial cystectomy was investigated as a method of bladder preservation with better disease outcomes than transurethral bladder tumor resection in T1 high-grade bladder cancer patients. Method and materials. The national Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (SEER) (2004–2015) were used to obtain patients diagnosed with T1 high-grade bladder cancer, and finally, 25263 patients were enrolled in our study. The Kaplan–Meier method with the log-rank test was performed to analyze the outcome of overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) between patients undergoing partial cystectomy (PC), transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT), or radical cystectomy (RC). Moreover, the propensity score matching (PSM) and multivariable Cox proportional hazard model were also utilized in the study. RESULTS: Ultimately, 24635 patients were undergoing TURBT, while 190 and 438 patients were, respectively, assigned to the PC and RC groups. Compared with patients with TURBT, a tendency of a higher proportion of higher older and male patients was observed in the PC group. When matching with RC patients, patients in the PC group were commonly older and had bigger tumor sizes and single tumors (All P < 0.05). After 1 : 1 PSM, 190 patients with TURBT and 160 patients receiving PC were selected. In survival analysis, the patients in the PC group had a higher survival probability of both OS and CSS before and after PSM compared with those in the TURBT group. Meanwhile, no significant differences were observed between the RC and PC groups in OS and CSS analysis. Moreover, multivariable Cox regression showed that PC was a protective factor for overall mortality (ACM) and cancer-specific mortality (CSM) compared with TURBT in T1 high-grade patients (All P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Patients undergoing partial cystectomy were shown to have a better outcome compared with those with transurethral bladder tumor resection in T1 high-grade bladder cancer patients. Partial cystectomy could be the more worthwhile choice for bladder preservation in T1 high-grade bladder cancer patients.