Survival analysis in patients with upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma: A comparison between open and hand-assisted laparoscopic nephroureterectomy

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the stage- and grade-specific survival rate in patients with upper urinary tract (UUT) transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) after open (ONU) or hand-assisted laparoscopic nephroureterectomy (LNU) with bladder-cuff excision. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From January 1998 to April 2005, 143 patients with UUT-TCC were treated with either ONU or LNU and enrolled in the study. The peri-operative data were collected by retrospective chart review. The recurrence, metastasis and survival rate were calculated. RESULTS: The 5-year disease-specific survival of patients with pT1 disease was 88.1% after ONU and 92.0% after LNU (P = 0.745); the respective values for patients with pT2 were 11/17 and 12/15 (P = 0.874), and for pT3 were six/11 and 12/15 (P = 0.476). The incidence of bladder recurrence within 2 years after surgery was 24.7% for ONU and 19.7% for LNU (P = 0.475). CONCLUSION: The results were similar after ONU or LNU with bladder-cuff excision; bladder-cuff excision using a hand-assisted device is effective and serves as a treatment option for patients with UUT-TCC.