Impact of Baseline Characteristics on the Survival Benefit of High-Intensity Local Treatment in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder

A recent study reported an overall survival benefit for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (mUCB) managed with high-intensity local treatment (LT) of the primary tumor (chemotherapy plus radical cystectomy and/or radiation therapy ≥50Gy). Given the non-negligible morbidity of these procedures, adequate patient selection is crucial. Our objective was to identify patients who might benefit the most from high-intensity LT. Data for 3044 patients with mUCB at diagnosis were extracted from the National Cancer Data Base 2004-2013, and patients were categorized on the basis of treatment: high-intensity LT versus conservative LT (chemotherapy plus transurethral resection of bladder tumor and/or radiation therapy <50Gy). Multivariate Cox regression analysis predicted baseline 2-yr overall mortality (OM) risk among patients who received conservative LT. We then assessed the interaction between predicted OM risk and LT type. Compared to conservative LT, high-intensity LT yielded a higher observed OM-free survival rate among all patients with pure mUCB, irrespective of their predicted OM risk (nonsignificant interaction, p=0.7). These findings underline the need for further retrospective and prospective evaluation. PATIENT SUMMARY: Among patients with metastatic histologically pure urothelial carcinoma of the bladder, we found an overall survival benefit of high-intensity local treatment directed at the primary tumor, regardless of predicted baseline 2-yr overall mortality risk.