A clinical case of a big urethral recurrence after cystectomy in a patient with invasive bladder cancer

Abstract

The urethral recurrence (UR) of invasive bladder cancer (iBC) after cystectomy is observed in 6% of patients at highest. In this clinical observation of a 38-year old man, a mass (103 38 mm) was found in the proximal urethra by magnetic resonance imaging at 15 months after radical (R0) cystectomy for iBC pT4aN0M0. The clinical picture of UR was characterized by urethrorrhagia and priapism with associated advanced pain syndrome. At 3 months after surgical resection of the UR and subsequent chemotherapy, distant lung, liver and bone metastases were found, which led to the patient's death at 5 months after penectomy. This clinical case indicates that after radical cystectomy, the occurrence of a big-sized urethral recurrence of iBC can cause rapid development of distant metastatic disease.