Long-term follow-up of Holmium-YAG laser vaporisation of bladder urothelial carcinoma

Introduction: Many patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) will develop recurrences of their tumour after their first resection. Flexible cystoscopy under local anaesthesia with Holmium-YAG laser ablation of tumour (FHoLAT) is safe, well tolerated procedure with significant cost savings when compared to cystoscopy under general or regional anaesthesia. We retrospectively analysed the outcomes of a large series of patients undergoing FHoLAT at our institution between April 2006 and September 2013. Patients and methods: Patients were offered FHoLAT if the tumour recurrence was small and/or they were deemed unfit for regional or general anaesthesia. Patient data was extracted from medical records. The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), progression-free survival (PFS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). Results: 232 patients with a total 522 FHoLAT procedures were included. The median follow-up was 74.8 (43.5–101) months; 18% were discharged after a recurrence free follow-up duration; 52.2% had one FHoLAT, 19.8% had two FHoLATs, 11.2% had three FHoLATs and 16.8% had four or more FHoLAT. At initial diagnosis 24.1% of patients had G1pTa, 47% G2pTa, 9.9% G3pTa and T1 in 18.9%. 4.3% had concurrent carcinoma in situ. At 10 years, OS was 47.4%, CSS was 94.1%, PFS was 82.1%, RFS was 15.8%. Conclusions: FHoLAT for bladder tumour recurrences has an acceptable CSS and PFS for patients with small low-grade tumours or patients with high-grade or T1 tumours who are unfit for regional or general anaesthesia. The role of FHoLAT in unfit patients seems clear, but further prospective trials are needed to define its role in other patient groups, particularly high-grade NMIBC. Level of evidence: 3b-4