High-Risk of Adverse Pathologic Features in Patients With Clinical T1 High-Grade Bladder Cancer Undergoing Radical Cystectomy.

Background: Radical cystectomy (RC) is used to treat select patients with T1 high-grade (T1HG) bladder cancer. However, population-level utilization trends and outcomes for these patients are not well-known. We sought to evaluate treatment patterns and clinicopathologic outcomes of RC for T1HG bladder cancer. Patients and Methods: Using the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) for 1998-2012, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with clinical T1HG bladder cancer. The prevalence of RC used to treat T1HG bladder cancer from 1998-2012 was determined. For years 2010-2012, demographic and cancer-related factors were described and regression analysis was used to examine associations with RC. Oncologic outcomes of RC were described and related to mortality using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: Treatment of T1HG bladder cancer with RC nearly doubled, from 5.5% during 1998-2000 to 9.9%, during 2010-2012. For 2010-2012, 18,277 patients with T1HG bladder cancer were analyzed. Patients who underwent RC were younger, had fewer comorbidities, and were more often treated at an academic center than those who did not undergo RC. At the time of RC, 41% of patients with T1HG bladder cancer were upstaged (pT2 or greater) and 12.7% had lymph node metastases. The 1- and 3-year survival rates were 0.89 and 0.68, respectively. Extravesical (T3+) disease at RC had the strongest independent hazard (hazard ratio [HR], 2.32; 95% CI, 1.72-3.11) of death other than age of 82 years or older (HR, 3.40; 95% CI, 2.28-5.07). Conclusions: The use of RC for T1HG bladder cancer has increased in prevalence in recent years but is still not widely used. There are concerning pathologic outcomes in patients with clinical T1HG bladder cancer treated with RC, including high rates of pathologic upstaging and nodal metastases. Future studies are necessary to better risk-stratify patients with T1HG bladder cancer to best select those who will benefit from aggressive therapy with RC.