Impact of adjuvant systemic chemotherapy on postoperative survival in patients with high-risk urothelial cancer

Background: The objective of this study was to retrospectively investigate the effectiveness of adjuvant combination chemotherapy for locally advanced urothelial cancer. Methods: Between 1987 and 1998, 56 patients with locally advanced bladder (n = 27) or upper urinary tract (n = 29) cancer (pathological stage T3, T4 or N1, N2 and M0) were treated by radical cystectomy or radical nephroureterectomy and regional lymphadenectomy. Thirty‐one patients had lymph node‐positive disease and 25 patients did not. Twenty patients underwent adjuvant chemotherapy and 36 patients were observed after surgery. Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine the impact of numerous clinicopathological findings on survival. A subgroup analysis of patients with lymph node‐positive disease was conducted to evaluate disease‐free survival and overall survival rates. Results: In this series, the median follow‐up period was 39 months (range, 4–163) after surgery. Disease‐free and overall survival rates of all 56 patients were 45% and 58%, respectively, at 3 years. Only lymph node status was significantly associated with disease‐free and overall survival in the multivariate analyses. In a subgroup analysis of patients with lymph node‐positive disease, 16 patients who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy had superior disease‐free survival compared to 15 patients with no adjuvant chemotherapy (P = 0.0376). Conclusion: These findings show that the prognosis of advanced urothelial cancer is significantly associated with nodal status. Furthermore, adjuvant combination chemotherapy has a positive impact on survival in patients with lymph node‐positive disease.