Long-Term Oncologic Outcomes of Endoscopic Management of High-Risk Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma: The Fundació Puigvert's Experience

Abstract

Objectives:

Many patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) outside of the low-risk criteria may possess low absolute risks of distant progression. Herein, we hypothesized that careful selection of high-risk patients undergoing an endoscopic approach could result in acceptable oncologic outcomes.

Materials and Methods:

Patients with high-risk UTUC managed endoscopically between 2015 and 2021 were retrospectively identified from a prospectively maintained single academic institution database. Elective and imperative indications for endoscopic treatment were considered. Regarding elective indications, the decision to perform endoscopic treatment was systematically proposed to high-risk patients in whom macroscopically complete ablation was deemed feasible, excluding invasive appearance on CT scan, and without histologic variant.

Results:

A total of 60 patients with high-risk UTUC met our inclusion criteria (29 imperative and 31 elective indications). The median follow-up in patients without any event was 36 months. At 5 years, the estimated overall survival, cancer-specific survival, metastasis-free survival, UTUC recurrence-free survival, radical nephroureterectomy-free survival, and bladder recurrence-free survival were 57% (41–79), 75% (57–99), 86% (71–100), 56% (40–76), 81% (70–93), and 69% (54–88), respectively. All oncologic outcomes were similar between patients with elective and imperative indications (all log-rank p > 0.05).

Conclusions:

In conclusion, we report the first large series of endoscopic treatment in patients with high-risk UTUC, arguing that promising oncologic outcomes can be achieved in properly selected candidates. We encourage multi-institutional collaborative work as a large cohort of high-risk patients treated endoscopically may allow subgroup analyses to define the best candidates.