Multimodal organ-sparing treatment strategies have shown similar survival rates when compared to radical surgery for muscle-invasive bladder cancer; however, up to 80% of surviving patients retained their own, well-functioning bladder. Within an interdisciplinary bladder-preserving treatment protocol, concurrent chemoradiotherapy was superior to radiotherapy alone—supporting its use as an alternative to radical cystectomy.
Key Points
Multimodality treatment of muscle-invasive bladder cancer including limited surgery (transurethral resection) and chemoradiation proved feasible and effective in a recent multicentre phase III trial and showed superiority to radiotherapy alone. This approach underlines its role as an alternative treatment to radical cystectomy, at least for selected patients.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Hautmann, R. E., de Petriconi, R. C., Pfeiffer, C. & Volkmer, B. G. Radical cystectomy for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder without neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy: long-term results in 1100 patients. Eur. Urol. 61, 1039–1047 (2012).
Rödel, C., Weiss, C. & Sauer, R. Trimodality treatment and selective organ preservation for bladder cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 24, 5536–5544 (2006).
James, N. D. et al. Radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy in muscle-invasive bladder cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 366, 1477–1488 (2012).
[No authors listed] Epidermoid anal cancer: results from the UKCCCR randomised trial of radiotherapy alone versus radiotherapy, 5-fluorouracil, and mitomycin. UKCCCR Anal Cancer Trial Working Party. UK Co-ordinating Committee on Cancer Research. Lancet 348, 1049–1054 (1996).
Forastiere, A. A. et al. Concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy for organ preservation in advanced laryngeal cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 349, 2091–2098 (2003).
Gore, J. L. et al. Use of radical cystectomy for patients with invasive bladder cancer. J. Natl Cancer Inst. 102, 802–811 (2010).
Efstathiou, J. A. et al. Long-term outcomes of selective bladder preservation by combined-modality therapy for invasive bladder cancer: the MGH experience. Eur. Urol. 61, 705–711 (2012).
Krause, F. S. et al. 15-year survival rates after transurethral resection and radiochemotherapy or radiation in bladder cancer treatment. Anticancer Res. 31, 985–990 (2011).
Rödel, C. et al. Combined-modality treatment and selective organ preservation in invasive bladder cancer: long-term results. J. Clin. Oncol. 20, 3061–3071 (2002).
Tunio, M. A., Hashmi, A., Qayyum, A., Mohsin, R. & Zaeem, A. Whole-pelvis or bladder-only chemoradiation for lymph node-negative invasive bladder cancer: single-institution experience. Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 82, e457–e462 (2012).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weiss, C., Rödel, C. Chemoradiation superior in muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 9, 374–375 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.92
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.92
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Systemic, perioperative management of muscle-invasive bladder cancer and future horizons
Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology (2017)
-
Translationale Uroradioonkologie
Der Urologe (2013)
-
Strahlentherapie im Alter
Forum (2013)