Primary urethral cancer: treatment patterns and associated outcomes

Abstract

Objectives To evaluate treatment patterns and associated outcomes of patients with urethral cancer. Patients and Methods After obtaining institutional review board approval we identified 165 patients treated for primary urethral cancer between 1956 and 2017. Treatment included monotherapy (surgery or radiation), dual therapy (surgery+radiation, surgery+chemotherapy, or chemotherapy+radiation) or triple therapy (surgery+radiation+chemotherapy). Rates of different treatments were described by treatment year. The association between treatment type and outcomes was evaluated with multivariable Cox regression models, adjusting for disease characteristics. Results The study cohort included 74 men and 91 women, with a median age of 61 years. Common histologies were squamous cell (36%), urothelial (27%) and adenocarcinoma (25%). At presentation, 72% of patients had invasive disease, 24% had nodal involvement, and 5% had metastases. Treatment included monotherapy (57%), dual therapy (21%), and triple therapy (10%). The use of monotherapy decreased over time, while rates of dual therapy remained consistent, and rates of triple therapy increased. The median follow‐up was 4.7 years. Estimated 5‐year local recurrence‐free, disease‐specific and overall survival were 51%, 48% and 41%, respectively. Monotherapy was associated with decreased local recurrence‐free survival after adjusting for stage, histology, sex and year of treatment (P = 0.017). There was no evidence that treatment type was associated with distant recurrence, cancer‐specific or overall survival. Conclusions We found preliminary evidence that multimodal therapy, more commonly used in recent years, was of benefit in patients with primary urethral cancer. This finding should be confirmed in further studies involving multiple centres because of the low incidence of the disease.

Comparison Between Urothelial and Non-Urothelial Urethral Cancer

“…Urethral cancer has been studied in small patient groups and several studies were based on patients diagnosed in the 1970s and 1980s (1,(4)(5)(6)(7). In those studies, variant histology predisposed to more advanced stage and worse survival.…”

Chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy in primary female urethral squamous cell carcinoma: a case report

“…16 The application rate of multimodal therapy has grown in recent years as a result of continual reports of multimodal therapy. Mano et al 20 studied 165 patients with primary urethral carcinoma from 1956 to 2017, and 91 of them were women and 74 were men. A total of 72% of patients had invasion of surrounding tissues or organs, and 24% had metastases to local-regional lymph nodes.…”

“…After controlling for the pathological stage, histology, sex, and year of treatment, patients who received monotherapy had a poorer recurrence-free survival than patients who had dual or triple therapy (P ¼ 0.017), and all-cause mortality was greater. 20 The use of multimodal therapy, comprising surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy is recommended by the European Association of Urology guidelines and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for patients with primary urethral cancer. 11,12 However, the particular scheme, application sequence, and application timing remain unclear.…”

“…Mano et al. 20 studied 165 patients with primary urethral carcinoma from 1956 to 2017, and 91 of them were women and 74 were men. A total of 72% of patients had invasion of surrounding tissues or organs, and 24% had metastases to local-regional lymph nodes.…”

“…After controlling for the pathological stage, histology, sex, and year of treatment, patients who received monotherapy had a poorer recurrence-free survival than patients who had dual or triple therapy (P = 0.017), and all-cause mortality was greater. 20 …”