Effect of prophylactic intravesical instillation of pirarubicin to prevent recurrent bladder tumors following nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract cancer

We retrospectively evaluated 23 patients who had been administered pirarubicin by intravesical instillation once weekly for 5 weeks, after undergoing surgery for upper urinary tract cancer between May 2003 and October 2008. We compared their clinical records with those of 19 patients with upper urinary tract cancer subjected to nephroureterectomy between 1998 and 2008, and who did not receive intravesical instillation of pirarubicin. This prophylactic therapy was well tolerated and contributed to reduce the rate of bladder recurrence. The non-recurrence rate at 2 years was 87.0% in the instillation group and 68.4% in the non-instillation group (P＝0.0025). The overall analysis of the study population did not reveal any statistically significant risk factors of bladder recurrence.