Archive for category: Article of the Week

You are here: / Article of the Week

Article of the week: Quality of life after robotic cystectomy

/by

Every week the Editor-in-Chief selects the Article of the Week from the current issue of BJUI. The abstract is reproduced below and you can click on the button to read the full article, which is freely available to all readers for at least 30 days from the time of this post.

In addition to the article itself, there is an accompanying editorial written by a prominent member of the urological community. This blog is intended to provoke comment and discussion and we invite you to use the comment tools at the bottom of each post to join the conversation.

If you only have time to read one article this week, it should be this one.

Short-term patient reported health-related quality of life (HRQL) outcomes after robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC)

Michael A. Poch, Andrew P. Stegemann, Shabnam Rehman, Mohamed A. Sharif, Abid Hussain, Joseph D. Consiglio*, Gregory E. Wilding* and Khurshid A. Guru

Departments of Urology and *Biostatistics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA

Read the full article
OBJECTIVE

• To determine short-term health-related quality of life (HRQL) outcomes after robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) using the Bladder Cancer Index (BCI) and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Body Image Scale (BIS).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

• All patients undergoing RARC were enrolled in a quality assurance database.

• The patients completed two validated questionnaires, BCI and BIS, preoperatively and at standardised postoperative intervals.

• The primary outcome measure was difference in interval and baseline BCI and BIS scores.

• Complications were identified and classified by Clavien grade.

RESULTS

• In all, 43 patients completed pre- and postoperative questionnaires.

• There was a decline in the urinary domain at 0–1 month after RARC (P = 0.006), but this returned to baseline by 1–2 months.

• There was a decline in the bowel domain at 0–1 month (P < 0.001) and 1–2 months (P = 0.024) after RARC, but this returned to baseline by 2–4 months.

• The decline in BCI scores was greatest for the sexual function domain, but this returned to baseline by 16–24 months after RARC.

• Body image perception using BIS showed no significant change after RARC except at the 4–10 months period (P = 0.018).

CONCLUSIONS

• Based on BCI and BIS scores HRQL outcomes after RARC show recovery of urinary and bowel domains ≤6 months. Longer follow-up with a larger cohort of patients will help refine HRQL outcomes.

 

Editorial: The evolution of robotic cystectomy

/by

A decade has passed since the publication of the first series of robot-assisted radical cystectomies in the BJUI by Menon et al. [1]. New technologies are fascinating, and many surgeons who aspire to leave a mark in history take the lead in pioneering new procedures. Others follow without waiting for any evidence to justify the adoption of new procedures. In this race, the opinion of the most important stakeholder, the patient, gets ignored.

Although their study has many methodological flaws, Guru et al. [2] have made the effort to collect data on patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQL) after robot-assisted radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. Radical cystectomy is a morbid procedure with a serious impact on patients’ HRQL, no matter how it is performed. Loosing an organ which is responsible for the storage and evacuation of urine several times a day and replacing it with alternatives of continent or incontinent diversion has a serious impact on quality of life, as is evident from this study.

Robotic cystectomy is still evolving. With more experience, a few experts have ventured to perform intracorporeal reconstruction of the urinary diversion. While we await the long-term functional outcomes of this switch over in surgical approach, Guru et al. report the short-term HQRL outcomes in a series of 43 patients undergoing robot-assisted radical cystectomy and intracorporeal urinary diversion at their institution. Most patients (n = 38) had ileal conduit urinary diversion. The authors went on to compare the postoperative outcomes of this cohort with another group of 70 patients who only completed the questionnaire after having undergone robot-assisted radical cystectomy and extracorporeal urinary diversion.

It is interesting to note that there was no significant difference in HRQL between those undergoing extracorporeal and those undergoing intracorporeal reconstruction. These outcomes reinforce the need to gather robust scientific evidence from properly conducted multi-centre, multinational randomized trials before the introduction of new procedures, instead of evaluation with retrospective studies. The urological community has embraced new technologies and patients have benefited a great deal from these innovative approaches; however, it is incumbent upon us to develop a culture of independent, unbiased data collection on outcomes. In this regard we must make the HQRL one of the most important quality indicators in assessment of the new procedures. Such an approach will enable us to justify the extra cost which society has to bear for our innovative trends in the management of old problems [3].

Read the full article

Muhammad Shamim Khan
Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital and King’s College London, London, UK

References

  1. Menon M, Hemal AK, Tewari A et al. Nerve-sparing robot-assisted radical cystoprostatectomy and urinary diversion. BJU Int 2003; 92: 232–236
  2. Poch MA, Stegemann AP, Rehman S et al. Short-term patient reported health-related quality of life (HRQL) outcomes after robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC). BJU Int 2014; 113: 260–265
  3. Wang TT, Ahmed KA, Khan MS et al. Quality-of-care framework in urological cancers: where do we stand? BJU Int 2011; 109: 1436–1443

 

Article of the Month: The Melbourne Consensus Statement

/1 Comment/by

Every month the Editor-in-Chief selects an Article of the Month from the current issue of BJUI. The abstract is reproduced below and you can click on the button to read the full article, which is freely available to all readers for at least 30 days from the time of this post.

In addition to the article itself, we feature a video from Tony Costello and Declan Murphy discussing the Melbourne Statement.

If you only have time to read one article this month, it should be this one.

The Melbourne Consensus Statement on the early detection of prostate cancer

Declan G. Murphy1,2,3, Thomas Ahlering4, William J. Catalona5, Helen Crowe2,3, Jane Crowe3, Noel Clarke10, Matthew Cooperberg6, David Gillatt11, Martin Gleave12, Stacy Loeb7, Monique Roobol14, Oliver Sartor8, Tom Pickles13, Addie Wootten3, Patrick C. Walsh9 and Anthony J. Costello2,3

1Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, 2Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne, 3Epworth Prostate Centre, Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre, Epworth Healthcare Richmond, Melbourne, Vic., Australia, 4School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, 5Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 6Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of California, San Francisco, 7New York University, 8Tulane University School of Medicine, Tulane, 9The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University, USA, 10The Christie Hospital, Manchester University, Manchester, 11Bristol Urological Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, 12The Vancouver Prostate Centre, 13BC Cancer Agency, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and 14Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Read the full article

• Various conflicting guidelines and recommendations about prostate cancer screening and early detection have left both clinicians and their patients quite confused. At the Prostate Cancer World Congress held in Melbourne in August 2013, a multidisciplinary group of the world’s leading experts in this area gathered together and generated this set of consensus statements to bring some clarity to this confusion.

• The five consensus statements provide clear guidance for clinicians counselling their patients about the early detection of prostate cancer.

 

Read Previous Articles of the Week

 

Video: Why the Melbourne Statement?

/by

The Melbourne Consensus Statement on the early detection of prostate cancer

Declan G. Murphy1,2,3, Thomas Ahlering4, William J. Catalona5, Helen Crowe2,3, Jane Crowe3, Noel Clarke10, Matthew Cooperberg6, David Gillatt11, Martin Gleave12, Stacy Loeb7, Monique Roobol14, Oliver Sartor8, Tom Pickles13, Addie Wootten3, Patrick C. Walsh9 and Anthony J. Costello2,3

1Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, 2Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne, 3Epworth Prostate Centre, Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre, Epworth Healthcare Richmond, Melbourne, Vic., Australia, 4School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, 5Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 6Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of California, San Francisco, 7New York University, 8Tulane University School of Medicine, Tulane, 9The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University, USA, 10The Christie Hospital, Manchester University, Manchester, 11Bristol Urological Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, 12The Vancouver Prostate Centre, 13BC Cancer Agency, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and 14Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Read the full article

• Various conflicting guidelines and recommendations about prostate cancer screening and early detection have left both clinicians and their patients quite confused. At the Prostate Cancer World Congress held in Melbourne in August 2013, a multidisciplinary group of the world’s leading experts in this area gathered together and generated this set of consensus statements to bring some clarity to this confusion.

• The five consensus statements provide clear guidance for clinicians counselling their patients about the early detection of prostate cancer.

 

Article of the week: Obese patients should not be denied RARP

/1 Comment/by

Every week the Editor-in-Chief selects the Article of the Week from the current issue of BJUI. The abstract is reproduced below and you can click on the button to read the full article, which is freely available to all readers for at least 30 days from the time of this post.

In addition to the article itself, there is an accompanying editorial written by a prominent member of the urological community. This blog is intended to provoke comment and discussion and we invite you to use the comment tools at the bottom of each post to join the conversation.

If you only have time to read one article this week, it should be this one.

Perioperative and early oncological outcomes after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) in morbidly obese patients: a propensity score-matched study

Haidar Abdul-Muhsin, Camilo Giedelman, Srinivas Samavedi, Oscar Schatloff, Rafael Coelho, Bernardo Rocco, Kenneth Palmer, George Ebra and Vipul Patel

Global Robotics Institute, Florida Hospital Celebration Health, Celebration, FL, USA

Read the full article
OBJECTIVE

• To evaluate the perioperative and pathological outcomes associated with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) in morbidly obese men.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

• Between January 2008 and March 2012, 3041 patients underwent RARP at our institution by a single surgeon (V.P.).

• In all, 44 patients were considered morbidly obese with a body mass index (BMI) of ≥40 kg/m2.

• A propensity score-matched analysis was conducted using multivariable analysis to identify comparable groups of patients with a BMI of ≥40 and <40 kg/m2.

• Perioperative, pathological outcomes and complications were compared between the two matched groups.

RESULTS

• There was no significant difference in operative time. However, the mean estimated blood loss was higher in morbidly obese patients, at a mean (sd) of 113 (41) vs 130 (27) mL (P = 0.049).

• Anastomosis was more difficult in morbidly obese patients (P = 0.001).

• There were no significant differences in laterality, ease of nerve sparing, or transfusion rate between the groups.

• There were no intraoperative complications in either group. Postoperative pathological outcomes were similar between the groups.

• Differences in positive surgical margins and ease of nerve sparing approached statistical significance (P = 0.097, P = 0.075 respectively). Postoperative complication rates, pain scores, length of stay and indwelling catheter duration were similar in the groups.

CONCLUSIONS

• RARP in morbidly obese patients is technically demanding. However, it can be accomplished with acceptable morbidity and resource use.

• In the hands of an experienced surgeon, it is a safe procedure and offers beneficial clinical outcomes.

 

Read Previous Articles of the Week

 

 

Editorial: How should we best manage obesity in urology?

/1 Comment/by

Abdul-Muhsin et al. [1] are to be congratulated on an excellent study involving >3000 patients undergoing robot-assisted radical prostatectomy over a 4-year period. In their study they demonstrate that the morbidly obese patient can be managed in a just about equal way to the non-morbidly obese patient for removal of the prostate. The complications and recovery characteristics in morbidly obese patients are reviewed and it is concluded that, in this single-operator single-centre study, the morbidly obese male with prostate cancer should not be overlooked as a candidate for radical surgery.

We are all faced with more obese patients presenting to our clinical care; in the UK 20% of the adult population are obese and >3% are morbidly obese. There are an increasing number of studies looking at the outcome of surgery in the obese and morbidly obese populations. These studies have drawn mixed conclusions, with some suggesting an increased risk and morbidity and others suggesting no difference when compared with a non-obese population. This is confusing: perhaps the use of body mass index alone to assess obesity is limited and misleading [2]. This is because the distribution of fat varies considerably among individuals, with the most at-risk patients being those with a centripetal fat distribution producing a large abdominal girth. In middle-aged men, a waist size of >102 cm is the best predictor of metabolic syndrome with all its concomitant risk factors [3]. It is these patients who represent the greatest risk for surgery and it is these same patients who urgently need to improve their lifestyle and shed weight in order to achieve a normal life expectancy both to aid surgery and thereafter. Factors such as hypoventilation, hypertension and the risk of thromboembolism are greatly increased in this group. Diabetes, abnormal lipids, bone and joint diseases and reflux are common. These factors will probably contribute to multiple potential peri-operative complications. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing is very useful in detecting the patients most at risk and likely to require most intensive care postoperatively. There are too few studies to date that include this test and that specifically looking at the morbidly obese population, but results are encouraging and will very probably detect those patients most likely to require critical care facilities [4].

While the surgical results in the Abdul-Muhsin et al. study are excellent, one would not wish to dilute the key message to our patients that preparation for major surgery with weight loss is vital. Addressing nutrition and exercise activity in the preoperative period is extremely beneficial and highly successful. Achieving a 10% weight loss within weeks before surgery is entirely achievable with significant benefits to the medical comorbidities and, in particular, breathing and muscle activity [5]. One great advantage of prostate cancer surgery is the often slow-growing nature of the tumour and we can, therefore, often take the opportunity to postpone major surgery for just a matter of weeks to improve fitness and nutrition. This window of opportunity is more than enough to transform a high-risk patient to one with a much lower risk profile.

If we inspire our patients to join in the aim of the whole surgical team to safely cure prostate cancer using weight reduction and improved fitness then long-term life benefits will surely follow in addition to the immediate gains for surgery and anaesthesia.

Peter Amoroso
The London Clinic, 20 Devonshire Place, London W1G 6BW

Read the full article

References

  1. Abdul-Muhsin H, Giedelman C, Samavedi S et al. Perioperative and early oncological outcomes after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) in morbidly obese patients: a propensity score-matched study. BJU Int 2014; 113: 84–91
  2. Mullen JT, Moorman DW, Davenport DL. The obesity paradox body mass index and outcomes in patients undergoing non-bariatric general surgery. Ann Surg 2009; 250: 166–172
  3. Balentine CJ, RobInson CN, Marshall CR et al. Waist circumference predicts increased complications in rectal cancer surgery. J Gastrointest Surg 2010; 14: 1669–1679
  4. Hennis PJ, Meale PM, Hurst RA et al. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing predicts post operative outcome in patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery. Br J Anaesth 2012; 109: 566–571
  5. Benotti PN, Still CD, Wood GC et al. Preoperative weight loss before bariatric surgery. Arch Surg 2009; 44: 1150–1155

 

Article of the week: PCa-specific mortality increased in older men with low-risk disease

/1 Comment/by

Every week the Editor-in-Chief selects the Article of the Week from the current issue of BJUI. The abstract is reproduced below and you can click on the button to read the full article, which is freely available to all readers for at least 30 days from the time of this post.

In addition to the article itself, there is an accompanying editorial written by prominent members of the urological community. This blog is intended to provoke comment and discussion and we invite you to use the comment tools at the bottom of each post to join the conversation.

Finally, the third post under the Article of the Week heading on the homepage will consist of additional material or media. This week we feature a video from Dr. Aizer discussing his paper.

If you only have time to read one article this week, it should be this one

Initial management of prostate-specific antigen-detected, low-risk prostate cancer and the risk of death from prostate cancer

Ayal A. Aizer*, Ming-Hui Chen‡, Jona Hattangadi* and Anthony V. D’Amico†

*Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Boston, MA, †Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, and, ‡Department of Statistics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

Read the full article
OBJECTIVE

• To evaluate whether older age in men with low-risk prostate cancer increases the risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM) when non-curative approaches are selected as initial management.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

• The study cohort consisted of 27 969 men, with a median age of 67 years, with prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-detected, low-risk prostate cancer (clinical category T1c, Gleason score ≤6, and PSA ≤10) identified by the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results programme between 2004 and 2007.

• Fine and Gray’s competing risk regression analysis was used to evaluate whether management with non-curative vs curative therapy was associated with an increased risk of PCSM after adjusting for PSA level, age at diagnosis and year of diagnosis.

RESULTS

• After a median follow-up of 2.75 years, 1121 men died, 60 (5.4%) from prostate cancer.

• Both older age (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 1.05; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–1.08; P < 0.001) and non-curative treatment (AHR 3.34; 95% CI 1.97–5.67; P < 0.001) were significantly associated with an increased risk of PCSM.

• Men > the median age experienced increased estimates of PCSM when treated with non-curative as opposed to curative intent (P< 0.001); this finding was not seen in men ≤ the median age (P = 0.17).

CONCLUSION

• Pending prospective validation, our study suggests that non-curative approaches for older men with ‘low-risk’ prostate cancer result in an increased risk of PCSM, suggesting the need for alternative approaches to exclude occult, high grade prostate cancer in these men.

 

Read Previous Articles of the Week

 

Editorial: The age old question: who benefits from prostate cancer treatment?

/by

Widespread PSA-based screening has dramatically altered the profile of newly diagnosed prostate cancer in many countries. Although screening effectively decreases the rates of metastatic disease and prostate cancer death [1], the increasing proportion of low-risk disease necessitates a critical assessment of the need for aggressive therapy.

Active surveillance and watchful waiting are potential alternatives to delay or avoid the need for treatment in carefully selected patients. The key issue is determining which patients are appropriate for conservative management. Although these approaches are often targeted toward elderly men, such men are more likely to be diagnosed with high-risk disease. A recent study by Scosyrev et al. [2] raised concern about excess prostate cancer mortality attributable to under-treatment in the elderly.

Overall, there is very little Level 1 evidence to guide prostate cancer treatment selection. One such trial, the Swedish Prostate Cancer Group 4 (SPCG-4), showed that radical prostatectomy significantly improved survival compared with watchful waiting [3]; however, that study examined a primarily clinically detected population from the 1990s. Subsequently, the Prostate Cancer Intervention versus Observation Trial (PIVOT) randomized US male veterans diagnosed with prostate cancer from 1994 to 2002 to radical prostatectomy vs observation [4]. At 10 years, they reported no significant difference in overall survival between the two arms in the intent-to-treat analysis (hazard ratio 0.88; 95% CI 0.71–1.08, P = 0.22). However, that study was smaller than anticipated owing to difficulty with recruitment and there was a high rate of crossovers between the intervention and observation arms. Per-protocol analysis was not reported for PIVOT and the prostate cancer landscape has continued to change in the past decade, raising unanswered questions over what the results would be if we compared contemporary men who were actually treated to those who were not.

This is the knowledge gap addressed by Aizer et al. [5] who used Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data for 27 969 US men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer from 2004 to 2007. Overall, 67.1% of these men received radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy, while >30% underwent active surveillance or watchful waiting. Using competing risks regression, they showed that both age and non-curative treatment were associated with a significantly higher short-term prostate cancer-specific mortality. These results should be interpreted with caution, however, since they comprise observational data with great potential for confounding. Interestingly, at a short median follow-up of only 2.75 years, 5.4% of these men with presumed low-risk disease died from prostate cancer. Recently, there has been debate over whether Gleason 6 disease should really be considered a cancer [6], but these data highlight the limitations of current clinical staging, such that even presumed low-risk disease may be understaged. The authors suggest that use of a more extended biopsy scheme before active surveillance might reduce the risk of early progression due to undersampling. MRI represents another potential non-invasive treatment method to improve clinical staging and patient selection for active surveillance in the future [7].

Stacy Loeb
Department of Urology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

Read the full article

References

  1. Schroder FH, Hugosson J, Roobol MJ et al. Prostate-cancer mortality at 11 years of follow-up. N Engl J Med 2012; 366: 981–990
  2. Scosyrev E, Messing EM, Mohile S et al. Prostate cancer in the elderly: frequency of advanced disease at presentation and disease-specific mortality. Cancer 2012; 118: 3062–3070
  3. Bill-Axelson A, Holmberg L, Ruutu M et al. Radical prostatectomy versus watchful waiting in early prostate cancer. N Engl J Med 2011; 364: 1708–1717
  4. Wilt TJ, Brawer MK, Jones KM et al. Radical prostatectomy versus observation for localized prostate cancer. N Engl J Med 2012;367: 203–212
  5. Aizer AA, Chen MH, Hattangadi J, D’Amico AV. Initial management of prostate-specific-antigen-detected, low-risk prostate cancer and the risk of death from prostate cancer. BJU Int 2014; 113: 43–50
  6. Carter HB, Partin AW, Walsh PC et al. Gleason score 6 adenocarcinoma: should it be labeled as cancer? J Clin Oncol 2012; 30:4294–4296
  7. Vargas HA, Akin O, Afaq A et al. Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Predicting Prostate Biopsy Findings in Patients Considered for Active Surveillance of Clinically Low Risk Prostate Cancer. J Urol 2012; 188: 1732–1738

 

Video: PCa in older men, is it really low-grade disease?

/by

 

Initial management of prostate-specific antigen-detected, low-risk prostate cancer and the risk of death from prostate cancer

Ayal A. Aizer*, Ming-Hui Chen‡, Jona Hattangadi* and Anthony V. D’Amico†

*Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Boston, MA, †Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, and, ‡Department of Statistics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

Read the full article
OBJECTIVE

• To evaluate whether older age in men with low-risk prostate cancer increases the risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM) when non-curative approaches are selected as initial management.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

• The study cohort consisted of 27 969 men, with a median age of 67 years, with prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-detected, low-risk prostate cancer (clinical category T1c, Gleason score ≤6, and PSA ≤10) identified by the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results programme between 2004 and 2007.

• Fine and Gray’s competing risk regression analysis was used to evaluate whether management with non-curative vs curative therapy was associated with an increased risk of PCSM after adjusting for PSA level, age at diagnosis and year of diagnosis.

RESULTS

• After a median follow-up of 2.75 years, 1121 men died, 60 (5.4%) from prostate cancer.

• Both older age (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 1.05; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–1.08; P < 0.001) and non-curative treatment (AHR 3.34; 95% CI 1.97–5.67; P < 0.001) were significantly associated with an increased risk of PCSM.

• Men > the median age experienced increased estimates of PCSM when treated with non-curative as opposed to curative intent (P< 0.001); this finding was not seen in men ≤ the median age (P = 0.17).

CONCLUSION

• Pending prospective validation, our study suggests that non-curative approaches for older men with ‘low-risk’ prostate cancer result in an increased risk of PCSM, suggesting the need for alternative approaches to exclude occult, high grade prostate cancer in these men.

 

Article of the week: SEER shows no benefit from LND in RCC

/by

Every week the Editor-in-Chief selects the Article of the Week from the current issue of BJUI. The abstract is reproduced below and you can click on the button to read the full article, which is freely available to all readers for at least 30 days from the time of this post.

In addition to the article itself, there is an accompanying editorial written by prominent members of the urological community. This blog is intended to provoke comment and discussion and we invite you to use the comment tools at the bottom of each post to join the conversation.

Finally, the third post under the Article of the Week heading on the homepage will consist of additional material or media. This week we feature a video from Maxine Sun discussing her paper.

If you only have time to read one article this week, it should be this one

Extent of lymphadenectomy does not improve the survival of patients with renal cell carcinoma and nodal metastases: biases associated with the handling of missing data

Maxine Sun*, Quoc-Dien Trinh*‡, Marco Bianchi*, Jens Hansen*††, Firas Abdollah, Zhe Tian*, Shahrokh F. Shariat§, Francesco Montorsi, Paul Perrotte† and Pierre I. Karakiewicz*†

*Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, †Department of Urology, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Canada, ‡Vattikuti Urology Institute, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, §Department of Urology,Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA, Department of Urology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy, and ††Martini Clinic, Prostate Cancer Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Maxine Sun and Quoc-Dien Trinh contributed equally to this study.

Read the full article
OBJECTIVE

• Previous studies showed no survival benefit with respect to performing lymph node dissection (LND) at nephrectomy, whereas a recent population-based analysis suggested otherwise, although the latter relied on imputation. To reconcile the findings of that study by critically evaluating the handling of missing data.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

• Study participants comprised patients diagnosed with non-metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) of all stages who underwent LND at nephrectomy (n = 10 596).

• Multivariable Cox regression models were performed to predict cancer-specific mortality (CSM), where the primary variable of interest was the extent of LND.

• To examine differences in approaches with respect to handling missing data, separate analyses were performed: (i) imputed population; (ii) exclusion of patients with missing data; and (iii) inclusion of patients with missing data as a sub-category.

RESULTS

• Overall, 2916 (28%) patients had missing tumour grade.

• In multivariable analyses, our findings showed that increasing the extent of LND was associated with a significant protective effect on CSM in patients with pN1 after imputation (hazard ratio [HR], 0.82; P = 0.04).

• By contrast, the extent of LND was no longer significantly associated with a lower risk of CSM after excluding patients with a missing tumour grade (HR, 0.83; P = 0.1) or when including patients with missing tumour grade as a sub-category (HR, 0.82; P = 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

• The findings of the present study failed to corroborate the association of a survival benefit with increasing extent of LND at nephrectomy.

• The different methodologies employed to account for missing data may introduce important biases.

• Such considerations are non-negligible with respect to the interpretation of results for investigators who rely on administrative cohorts.

 

Read Previous Articles of the Week

 

© 2024 BJU International. All Rights Reserved.