Bladder Recurrence Following the Treatment of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma

Objective: Although, upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is rare it is associated with a high mortality rate and frequently, followed by bladder recurrence after radical surgery. Hence, this study aimed to identify the rate of bladder recurrence and its predictive factors. Material and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 104 patients, who were diagnosed with UTUC and had radical nephroureterectomy (RNU), at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. We excluded patients who have concurrent bladder cancer, or had a history of bladder cancer. Various clinicopathological factors were analyzed using the log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard model. Results: The mean age at diagnosis of UTUC was 68 years, and one-third of the patients were diagnosed with pathological T3 (33.7%). The mean follow-up duration was 56 months. Bladder recurrence occurred in 39 out of 104 patients (37.5%), and the median time to recurrence was 5.8 months (interquartile range 3.6 to 11.0 months). Tumor location in the distal ureter (p-value=0.038) and history of diagnostic ureteroscopy (p-value=0.004) were significantly associated with bladder recurrence in the univariate model. However, only the history of diagnostic ureteroscopy remained significant in the multivariate analysis (p-value=0.023). Conclusion: Bladder recurrence, following RNU, occurs in one-third of patients. Potential predictive factors may include history of diagnostic ureteroscopy, and the tumor location being in the distal ureter.