Study Investigates Survival Rates of Bladder Cancer Patients

A large-scale study of cancer patients has revealed that was no difference between the survival rates following radical bladder removal surgery compared to bladder-preserving combined modality treatment.

The researchers looked at data from 19 previously published cancer research papers including 12,380 patients with Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer (MIBC).

The research was published in the April 1, 2017, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, of the American Society for Radiation Oncology by researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UT Health San Antonio; San Antonio, TX, USA).

The researchers compared overall 10-year survival, progression-free survival, disease-specific survival, complications as a result of radical cystectomy treatment, and Combined Modality Treatment (CMT) that consisted of Radiation Therapy (RT), chemotherapy, and transurethral resection of the tumor.

The researchers concluded that CMT could be considered as a standard first approach for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) instead of the current standard of Radical Cystectomy (RC), which necessitates additional surgery to construct a new urine storage system for the patient.

Senior author of the study, assistant professor Dharam Kaushik, MD, UT Health San Antonio, said, "These results provide compelling evidence suggesting radiation therapy may be as good as surgery for many of these patients. We hope this study will help patients and their physicians understand the full range of options available when planning treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer. According to our analyses, patients undergoing radical cystectomy likely share no cancer survival benefits compared with patients receiving chemoradiation-based bladder preservation therapy. Further research is needed to evaluate these two treatment arms – radical cystectomy versus combined modality treatment – to identify optimal treatments for specific patients."

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