The Impact of Histological Variant on Oncological Outcomes in Patients With Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder Treated With Radical Cystectomy.

Bladder cancer with histological variant (HV) has different morphological features from usual urothelial carcinoma (UC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the oncological outcomes of HV in patients with bladder cancer.

We retrospectively evaluated data from 102 patients with UC of the bladder treated with radical cystectomy between 1998 and 2017. Pathological findings including HV were assigned by one dedicated pathologist. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by Cox regression models.

In total, 26 patients (25.5%) had HV, and the most common variant was squamous differentiation, followed by glandular differentiation and a mixed variant consisted of squamous and glandular differentiation. The presence of HV was associated with RFS and CSS (p=0.018, p=0.036, respectively).

HV has more aggressive tumor biological features compared to those with pure UC. The presence of HV was associated with poor survival.

Anticancer research. 2020 Aug [Epub]

Kenshiro Takemoto, Jun Teishima, Yuki Kohada, Kenichiro Ikeda, Hirotaka Nagamatsu, Akihiro Goriki, Shogo Inoue, Tetsutaro Hayashi, Mitsuru Kajiwara, Akio Matsubara

Department of Urology, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Science, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan ., Department of Urology, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Science, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan., Department of Urology, Hiroshima Prefectural Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan., Department of Urology, Nakatsu Daiichi Hospital, Oita, Japan.

Read an Expert Commentary by Bishoy Faltas, MD