Cystectomy for carcinoma of the bilharzial bladder: 138 cases 5 years later.

Our experience is outlined with 138 cases of bilharzial bladder cancer treated by radical cystectomy and followed for 5 years. The operative mortality was 13.7%. The 5-year survival rate was 32.6%. Analysis of survival figures revealed that the tumour grade was the most important prognostic factor. Most treatment failures were due to local recurrence which developed early after treatment. It was concluded that improvement in survival might be obtained by some form of pre-operative irradiation augmented by the use of a hypoxic cell sensitiser.