Treatment decisions of bladder cancer in patients older than 85 years: a SEER-based analysis 2011–2015

BACKGROUND: To compare the survival outcomes of patients over 85 years of age with bladder cancer. METHODS: We used data collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Kaplan-Meier (KM) curves were generated for overall survival with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the hazard ratios among cases in different groups. RESULTS: Of the 9,321 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 6,703 (71.9%) were men and 2,618 (28.1%) were women, with a mean (standard deviation) age of 88.68 (3.216) years. The median follow-up time of this cohort was 18 months. In the low-grade non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (LG NMIBC) group, our analysis showed that no further treatment led to a better prognosis after the first transurethral bladder tumor resection (TURBT). In the high-grade NMIBC (HG NMIBC) cohort, major therapy was correlated with better OS in univariable and multivariable analyses [hazard ratio (HR) 0.450; 95% CI: 0.351–0.577]. Trimodal therapy gave a better prognosis in the muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) cohort (HR 1.395; 95% CI: 1.147–1.697). In addition, none of the county factors were risk factors for prognosis in multivariable analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Minor and major therapies do not have a better prognosis after TURBT in LG NMIBC. Major therapy has better oncological outcomes in LG NMIBC and MIBC than minor therapy. Trimodal therapy leads to longer OS in MIBC. In addition, none of the county factors were risk factors for prognosis.