Prognostic importance of lymphovascular invasion in urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis

BACKGROUND The current study was conducted to assess the impact of lymphovascular invasion on the survival of patients with urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis. METHODS Patients with urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis who underwent radical nephroureterectomy from 2010 through 2015 were identified in the National Cancer Data Base. Patients were characterized according to demographic and clinical factors, including pathologic tumor stage and lymphovascular invasion. Associations with overall survival were assessed through proportional hazards regression analysis. RESULTS A total of 4177 patients were identified; 1576 had lymphovascular invasion. Patients with T3 disease and lymphovascular invasion had 5‐year survival that was significantly worse than that of patients with T3 disease without lymphovascular invasion (34.7% vs 52.6; P