To examine temporal national trends of operative approach for cystectomy and identify demographic or clinical predictive factors that influence choice of approach.
We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent cystectomy for bladder cancer between 2010 and 2013 using the National Cancer Database (NCDB).
Approach was stratified by open vs. minimally invasive (robotic or laparoscopic). Univariate Pearson chi-square and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess relationships between demographic and hospital factors and the receipt of minimally invasive or open surgical approach.
A total of 9439 patients met our inclusion criteria, of which 34.1% received a minimally invasive approach (MIA). Frequency of MIA increased from 26.3% in 2010 to 39.4% in 2013 (p< 0.0001). Univariate analysis identified statistically significant associations between year of diagnosis, sex, age, race, clinical T stage, insurance status, income, education, distance from hospital, facility type, geographic location, and facility cystectomy volume and choice of approach (all p<0.01). On multivariate analysis independent predictors of MIA included: increasing year of diagnosis, male gender, lower clinical T stage, private insurance vs. Medicaid, non-academic vs. academic program, Northeastern geographic region, receipt of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and lower cystectomy volume.
Utilization of MIA for cystectomy has increased nationally over the last several years likely due to increased surgeon familiarity with robotic laparoscopic pelvic surgery. Factors associated with MIA included male sex, locally confined disease, receipt of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, lower cystectomy volume centers, and non-academic centers.
Urology. 2017 Feb 15 [Epub ahead of print]
Andrew G Bachman, Alexander A Parker, Marshall D Shaw, Brian W Cross, Kelly L Stratton, Michael S Cookson, Sanjay G Patel