Oncological and Survival Outcomes of Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection in Patients with Nonmuscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Undergoing Radical Cystectomy Using the National Cancer Database

Objective

To evaluate the role of pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) in patients diagnosed with high-risk nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) undergoing radical cystectomy (RC) using a national cohort of NMIBC patients.

Methods

A cohort of patients diagnosed with NMIBC cancer with urothelial carcinoma from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) between 2004 and 2019 was utilized. The cohort consists of patients who have not received BCG and underwent upfront radical cystectomy or pelvic exenteration. Kaplan–Meier analysis was utilized to assess overall survival (OS) outcomes. Cox regression was also utilized to identify independent predictors of OS.

Results

The cohort of 9399 patients was stratified by clinical T stage and then subdivided by pathological outcome. For patients with cTa, a majority received a lymph node dissection 97.74% (941/1019), amongst the entire cohort, a minority had node positive disease 3.3% (34/1019). For cTis, most patients received a lymph node dissection 94.08% (482/507), and a minority had node positive disease 5.1% (26/507). For cT1, most patients had a lymph node dissection 95.62% (6,060/6,337), and a 13.1% (832/6337) of patients had a positive lymph node. Amongst patients with cT1 disease who underwent PLND, KMA demonstrated better OS compared to patients who did not undergo PLND (P < .001).

Conclusion

The data suggests an OS benefit in patients with later stage (cT1) NMIBC. Thus, our findings support the existing clinical guidelines of pelvic lymph node dissection in patients with high-risk nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer.