Evaluation of the Extent of Variant Histology in Urothelial Carcinoma as a Predictive Marker of Clinical Outcomes After Radical Cystectomy

Abstract

Background/Aim: This study investigated the impact of the extent of variant histology (VH) on the prognosis of patients with bladder cancer (BC). Patients and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated consecutive patients with muscle-invasive BC who were treated with radical cystectomy (RC) at our institution between 2005 and 2018. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were evaluated using Kaplan–Meier analysis and Cox regression. Results: We identified 103 and 47 patients with pure urothelial carcinoma (UC) and a VH in UC, respectively. At the cutoff of 80%, univariate analysis identified significant differences in RFS (p=0.046) and OS (p=0.038) between patients with ≥80% VH (n=21) and those with <80% VH (n=26). Multivariate analysis revealed that the presence of ≥80% VH was significantly associated with RFS and OS. Conclusion: The presence of ≥80% VH in UC could be an independent predictor of recurrence and mortality after RC.