Impact of multimodal treatment on survival in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Systemic combination chemotherapy remains the mainstay of treatment for metastatic urothelial cancer. Although initial response rates are 50-70%, these responses are usually transient. The present study investigated the impact of multimodal treatment including metastasectomy on survival in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer.


METHODS
Between 1989 and 2005, 48 patients with metastatic urothelial cancer underwent systemic chemotherapy at our institution. The majority received conventional cisplatin-based chemotherapy, whereas some patients underwent novel chemotherapeutic regimens mainly as salvage therapy with or without resection of metastases, aiming to improve the outcome. The relationship between clinical characteristics and survival was analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards model. The characteristics analyzed were sex, age, primary site, prior systemic chemotherapy, histology of primary lesion, white blood cell counts, hemoglobin levels, metastatic sites, total number of chemotherapy courses, and resection of the primary lesion and metastasis.


RESULTS
Median survival-time was 17 mo (95% confidence interval, 9-27 mo) for all 48 patients. Using a multivariate model, five or more chemotherapy cycles (p=0.0022), absence of liver, bone, and local recurrence (p=0.0146), and resection of metastasis (p=0.0006) were independent significant predictors of prolonged survival. Median survival time in the 12 patients with metastasectomy was 42 mo, which was significantly longer than that of patients who did not undergo metastasectomy (10 mo).


CONCLUSIONS
The number of chemotherapy cycles, sites of metastasis, and metastasectomy had an impact on survival. In selected patients, a multimodal approach including metastasectomy may contribute to long-term disease control.
Abe
Takashige
T
Department of Urology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. takataka@rf6.so-net.ne.jp
Shinohara
Nobuo
N
Harabayashi
Toru
T
Sazawa
Ataru
A
Maruyama
Satoru
S
Suzuki
Shin
S
Nonomura
Katsuya
K
D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D017741:Survivors; D014571:Urologic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery