National trends in diagnoses of subtype histologies in bladder cancer: A population-based study based on the SEER database

Abstract

Objective

Accurate diagnosis of histological subtypes is critical to inform optimal clinical management of patients with bladder cancer. However, the diagnosis of histological subtypes remains a challenge and significant interobserver variability persists. We analyzed temporal trends in the diagnosis of histological subtypes in bladder cancer in the US.

Methods

Utilizing the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 17 registry, we evaluated squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), adenocarcinoma (AC), neuroendocrine carcinoma (NC), and other histological subtypes including micropapillary, sarcomatoid, and plasmacytoid variants, diagnosed in cystectomy specimens for patients with pT2-4 primary bladder carcinoma during 2000-2020. We performed Spearman's rank-order correlation to assess temporal trends in the proportions of patients diagnosed with each histology category. We divided the 21-year analysis period into seven 3-year intervals and aggregated data over each interval to improve the precision of proportion estimates. We conducted multivariable logistic regression to adjust for covariates.

Results

We identified 28,160 patients. In unadjusted analysis, the proportion of patients diagnosed with SCC decreased significantly over time (ρ -0.86, P = 0.02). The proportion diagnosed with other histological subtypes increased significantly over time (ρ 1.00, P = 0.001). After adjusting for covariates, a later year of diagnosis was associated with significantly increased odds of NC (OR 1.07, P = 0.001) and other histological subtype diagnoses (OR 1.16, P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Variant histological subtypes of muscle-invasive bladder cancer in cystectomy specimens from patients in the US have increased over time. These trends could reflect increasing awareness of histological subtypes among pathologists.