Impact of tumor architecture on prognosis of patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma / 中华泌尿外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the prognostic significance of tumor architecture in patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) after radical nephroureterectomy.Methods:A retrospective study was performed on 958 patients who underwent nephroureterectomy in Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang university (156) and Renji Hospital (802) between January 1998 and June 2019. There were 630 males and 328 females with median age 67 years old, ranging 30-89 years old. Among them, 499 patients suffered with preoperative hydronephrosis, 370 patients suffered with hypertension, 120 patients suffered with diabetes, 252 patients had history of smoking and 119 patients had history of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) or with NMIBC. 489 patients had tumor in renal pelvic, 394 patients had tumor in ureter and 75 patients had tumor in both sites. Laparoscopic surgery was performed in 543 patients while open surgery was performed in 415 patients. The χ 2 test was used to detect the association between tumor architecture and several clinicopathological features. Kaplan-Meier method with the log-rank test was used to assess survival analysis. Multivariate analyses were conducted using Cox proportional-hazards regression model. Results:516 cases (53.9%) showed papillary architecture(Group A) and 442 cases (46.1%) showed sessile architecture(Group B). 543 patients had a tumor ≤3 cm and 415 had a tumor >3 cm. Low pathological grade and high grade was diagnosed in 275 and 683 patients, respectively. The distribution of pathological stage was pT a-1 in 441 cases, pT 2 in 180 cases, pT 3 in 308 cases and pT 4 in 29 cases. Lymphadenectomy was performed in 227 patients and 62 patients were pathologically confirmed lymph node metastasis. 48 patients were found squamous or glandular differentiation. Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) was observed in 150 patients. 134 patients were multifocality. Positive surgical margin was found in 43 patients. Median follow-up was 39 (ranging, 2-206) months. During follow-up, a total of 304 patients died and 236 died of UTUC. 5-year OS and CSS were 76.6% and 81.8%, respectively, in patients with papillary architecture (group A), which were significantly higher than 54.4% and 60.5% in patients with sessile architecture (group B, all P<0.001). Patients in group B had more female patients (38.9% vs.30.3%, P=0.005), ureteral location (47.1% vs. 36.1, P=0.002), hydronephrosis (55.9% vs.48.8%, P=0.030) and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy (27.1% vs. 14.7%, P<0.001), higher pathological grade (89.6% vs.55.6%, P<0.001) and stage (79.4% vs.32.4%, P<0.001), lymph node metastasis rate (12.0% vs.1.7%, P<0.001), squamous or glandular differentiation (9.5% vs.1.2%, P<0.001) and LVI (24.4% vs.8.1%, P<0.001) than patients in group A. Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that sessile architecture ( P=0.022, 0.028), age ≥65 years ( P<0.001, <0.001), history of diabetes ( P=0.008, 0.043), history of NMIBC or with NMIBC ( P<0.001, <0.001), higher grade ( P=0.002, <0.001), advanced tumor stage ( P=0.003, 0.005), lymph node metastasis ( P=0.003, 0.044), squamous or glandular differentiation ( P=0.008, 0.027) and positive surgical margin ( P=0.003, 0.010) were independent risk factors for OS and CSS. However, tumor >3 cm ( P=0.013, 0.131) and positive LVI ( P=0.045, 0.174) were independent risk factors for CSS rather than OS. Conclusions:UTUC is high malignancy. Tumor architecture was one of an independent risk factor for OS and CSS in UTUC patients and sessile tumors were more malignant, more aggressive and have worse prognosis.