OBJECTIVE: We evaluated whether there is a survival difference between patients having pT2a and pT2b invasive bladder carcinomas without nodal involvement and distant metastases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Three hundred and thirty-six patients with invasive carcinomas of the bladder underwent radical cystectomy. Seventy-five patients with organ-confined disease were evaluated. The pathological stage was used as predictor of survival. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to evaluate survival rates. Cox proportional-hazard models were used to identify whether pathological stage, grade, diversion type, age, and gender affect the outcome. RESULTS: Thirty-five patients were in the pT2aN0 group with a mean age of 57.8 +/- 1.4 (range 37-76) years, and 40 patients were in the pT2bN0 group with a mean age of 59.5 +/- 1.1 (range 37-76) years. There were 2 female patients. The mean follow-up period was 27.41 +/- 20.5 (range 3-80) months. The disease-specific 5-year survival rate of the pT2N0 cases was 80.3%. The disease-specific 5-year survival rates for the pT2aN0 and pT2bN0 patients were 84.3 and 66.0%, respectively. The disease-specific mean survival times of pT2aN0 and pT2bN0 cases were 76.2 +/- 4.7 and 56.3 +/- 7.7 months, respectively. There was no statistically significant survival difference between pT2aN0 and pT2bN0 patients by log-rank test (p = 0.1767). According to the Cox multivariate regression analysis, stage, grade, diversion type, age, and gender were not predictive of the survival in patients with organ-confined bladder cancer (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The level of muscle invasion in organ-confined bladder cancer does not have an influence on the patient survival. Also stage, grade, diversion type, age, and gender are not predictive of survival in patients with organ-confined muscle-invasive bladder cancer. 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel
OBJECTIVE: We evaluated whether there is a survival difference between patients having pT2a and pT2b invasive bladder carcinomas without nodal involvement and distant metastases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Three hundred and thirty-six patients with invasive carcinomas of the bladder underwent radical cystectomy. Seventy-five patients with organ-confined disease were evaluated. The pathological stage was used as predictor of survival. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to evaluate survival rates. Cox proportional-hazard models were used to identify whether pathological stage, grade, diversion type, age, and gender affect the outcome. RESULTS: Thirty-five patients were in the pT2aN0 group with a mean age of 57.8 +/- 1.4 (range 37-76) years, and 40 patients were in the pT2bN0 group with a mean age of 59.5 +/- 1.1 (range 37-76) years. There were 2 female patients. The mean follow-up period was 27.41 +/- 20.5 (range 3-80) months. The disease-specific 5-year survival rate of the pT2N0 cases was 80.3%. The disease-specific 5-year survival rates for the pT2aN0 and pT2bN0 patients were 84.3 and 66.0%, respectively. The disease-specific mean survival times of pT2aN0 and pT2bN0 cases were 76.2 +/- 4.7 and 56.3 +/- 7.7 months, respectively. There was no statistically significant survival difference between pT2aN0 and pT2bN0 patients by log-rank test (p = 0.1767). According to the Cox multivariate regression analysis, stage, grade, diversion type, age, and gender were not predictive of the survival in patients with organ-confined bladder cancer (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The level of muscle invasion in organ-confined bladder cancer does not have an influence on the patient survival. Also stage, grade, diversion type, age, and gender are not predictive of survival in patients with organ-confined muscle-invasive bladder cancer. 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel