Objectives: To report on the long-term clinical outcome of high-grade (G3) non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients treated at a single institution.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of 93 patients with NMIBC treated between January 1991 and September 2005 was performed. Patients were divided into three groups on the basis of treatment they received after transurethral resection (TUR) of the bladder. Forty-seven patients received adjuvant intravesical epirubicine after TUR of the bladder (Group 1). Twenty-four patients received intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) (Group 2). A radical cystectomy (RC) was performed on twenty-two patients (Group 3).
Results: Median follow up was 68.7 months. Overall, thirty patients (33%) experienced tumor recurrence. The survival rates of Group 3 were significantly higher than the 71 patients undergoing conservative therapy (Group 1 and 2). There was no statistically significant difference between Group 1 and 2, but treatment failure in patients treated with epirubicine was significantly higher than in those with BCG. Cases without concomitant carcinoma in situ (CIS) showed statistically significantly higher survival rates than those with concomitant CIS.
Conclusions: RC provides excellent survival rates in patients with high-grade NMIBC. Adjuvant therapy with BCG after a complete TUR of the bladder may be an effective treatment for high-grade NMIBC. If a conservative treatment is preferred to RC, co-existence of a concomitant CIS should be considered with caution.