Endoscopic operations in invasive cancer of the urinary bladder

: Long-term results of conservative treatment of 153 patients with invasive cancer of the urinary bladder were studied retrospectively. The patients had stage T2 (n=121, 79.1%), T3 (n=26, 17%), T4 (n=6, 3.9%). All the patients had transitional cell cancer. GI, G2 and G3 tumors were registered in 104 (68%), 35 (24%) and 12 (8%) cases, respectively. 88 (57.5%) patients received combined treatment, 65 (42.5%) patients--only surgery. In the patients with a small invasive tumor of the urinary bladder subjected to surgery alone (TUR-vaporization), overall 5-year survival was 70.4%. In patients with advanced cancer of the urinary bladder who had received curative radiotherapy in case of superficial residual tumor had TUR-vaporization of the urinary bladder overall 5-year survival was 76.5%. In patients exposed to large-fraction (TFD 20-25 Gy) preoperative radiotherapy followed by TUR-vaporization, survival at this moment was 84.6%. Three-year overall and recurrence-free survival at stage T2 was 97.5 and 47.4%, respectively; at stage T3 and T4 overall 3-year survival was 57.1 and 26.6%, respectively. Thus, the conclusion is that transurethral electrosurgery in conservative therapy of patients with invasive cancer of the urinary bladder is a promising approach.