AIM OF STUDY: To examine the impact of survival probability according to duration of survivorship following radical cystectomy (RC) in patients diagnosed with urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder (UCUB). METHODS: Overall, 4991 UCUB patients who underwent RC were abstracted. The cumulative survival estimates were used to generate conditional survival rates. Cox regression analyses were performed for prediction of cancer-specific mortality (CSM), according to duration of survivorship. RESULTS: The five-year CSM-free survival rate was 63.9% at RC, and increased to 71.0%, 77.5%, 81.7%, 85.9% and 86.3% in patients who survived ?1, 2, 3, 4 and 5years, respectively. Patients with pT2-4 disease benefitted from the highest increase in survivorship two years after RC. The same findings were recorded according to patients' nodal status. CONCLUSION: The survival of the first two years after RC markedly improves individual patient prognosis. The prognostic gains differ according to patient and tumour characteristics.
