The association between gender, stage and prognosis in bladder cancer patients undergoing radical cystectomy.

Objective: The incidence of bladder cancer is three times as high in men compared to women. Moreover, women are generally diagnosed with a more severe tumor stage and have poorer prognosis. This study aimed to examine the association between gender, stage, and prognosis among a subgroup of bladder cancer patients treated with radical cystectomy.

Patients and methods: A total of 460 patients (131 women, 329 men) with bladder cancer undergoing radical cystectomy at Aarhus University Hospital in 2015-2018 were retrospectively selected for this study and followed until 2021 at the latest. Correlations between gender, patient and tumor characteristics and oncological outcomes were analyzed by the Chi-squared test. By the use of multiple linear regression, we adjusted for age, comorbidity and the proportion of organ-confined and non-organ-confined disease at diagnosis.

Results: Female patients were found to be younger and less comorbid than male patients. A higher proportion of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer and non-organ-confined disease at the time of cystectomy was observed among female patients. Recurrence of cancer occurred 3.4 (0.1-6.7) months earlier in female patients, and they had a 47% higher cancer-specific mortality (RR = 1.47 (1.04-2.1)) compared to male patients. In the adjusted analysis, the association of an earlier recurrence in female patients remained.

Conclusion: This study verifies that gender disparities exist among bladder cancer patients, even after adjusting for age, comorbidity and for the proportion of organ-confined and non-organ-confined disease at cystectomy. Further investigations are required to investigate the etiology of this observed difference between sexes.