Risks and benefits of pelvic lymphadenectomy in octogenarians undergoing radical cystectomy due to urothelial carcinoma of the bladder

Objectives According to current guidelines, radical cystectomy (RC) should be combined with an extended pelvic lymphadenectomy (PLND) as therapeutic and staging instrument. Objective of this study was to analyze the influence of PLND on survival rates and complication rates in a selected group of elderly patients with a minimum age of 80 years. Materials and methods In this single-center retrospective analysis, we evaluated 102 patients who underwent RC due to UCB from 2004 to 2015 at our institution. In 74 patients (73%), RC was combined with PLND; in 28 cases (27%), RC was performed without PLND. Impact of PLND on cancer specific survival (CSS), overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) was analyzed using log-rank test and COX regression model. Results In univariate analysis of the data, we were not able to show a significant impact of PLND on CSS ( p = 0.606), OS ( p = 0.979) or PFS ( p = 0.883). Also in multivariate analysis of the data, we were not able to identify PLND as an independent prognostic parameter on survival rates of patients undergoing RC, neither for CSS ( p = 0.912) nor OS ( p = 0.618) or PFS ( p = 0.900). Conclusions Our small and single-center study was not able to demonstrate a significant independent influence of PLND on CSS, OS and PFS in octogenarians undergoing RC due to UCB. There is no doubt that RC should usually be combined with PLND, but the results of this small data set with a selected patient cohort indicate that RC without PLND might be an option in selected cases of elderly patients.