Racial differences in the outcome of patients with urothelial carcinoma of the upper urinary tract: an international study.

Study Type - Therapy (case series) Level of Evidence 4 What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? The differential effect of ethnicity on clinico-pathological features and cancer-related outcomes remains uninvestigated in upper tract urothelial carcinoma. Ethnicity was not an independent predictor of either recurrence or cancer-related death in upper tract urothelial carcinoma. OBJECTIVE • To assess the impact of differences in ethnicity on clinico-pathological characteristics and outcomes of patients with upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) in a large multi-center series of patients treated with radical nephroureterectomy (RNU). MATERIALS AND METHODS • We retrospectively collected the data of 2163 patients treated with RNU at 20 academic centres in America, Asia, and Europe. • Univariable and multivariable Cox regression models addressed recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS). RESULTS • In all, 1794 (83%) patients were Caucasian and 369 (17%) were Japanese. All the main clinical and pathological features were significantly different between the two ethnicities. • The median follow-up of the whole cohort was 36 months. At last follow-up, 554 patients (26%) developed disease recurrence and 461 (21%) were dead from UTUC. • The 5-year RFS and CSS estimates were 71.5% and 74.2%, respectively, for Caucasian patients compared with 68.8% and 75.4%, respectively, for Japanese patients. • On univariable Cox regression analyses, ethnicity was not significantly associated with either RFS ( P= 0.231) or CSS ( P= 0.752). • On multivariable Cox regression analyses that adjusted for the effects of age, gender, surgical type, T stage, grade, tumour architecture, presence of concomitant carcinoma in situ, lymphovascular invasion, tumour necrosis, and lymph node status, ethnicity was not associated with either RFS (hazard ratio [HR] 1.1; P= 0.447) or CSS (HR 1.0; P= 0.908). CONCLUSIONS • There were major differences in the clinico-pathological characteristics of Caucasian and Japanese patients. • However, RFS and CSS probabilities were not affected by ethnicity and race was not an independent predictor of either recurrence or cancer-related death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]