Long-term surveillance of bladder tumours: current practice in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

INTRODUCTION

Surveillance of transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder forms a major part of the workload of many urology units. Unfortunately, the policy for long-term surveillance of these cancers is neither clear nor agreed upon in the absence of evidence base. Our study was performed to provide current national practice data, and begin the debate on consensus guidelines.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A questionnaire was sent to Consultant Urologists (CUs) in the UK and Ireland (n=501) asking about their policy on the long-term surveillance of different bladder tumours once patients are free of recurrence.

RESULTS

A 73% response rate was observed (365/501). Views varied considerably. They ranged from life long cystoscopic surveillance for low-stage low-grade tumours (pTaG1) to discharge after 5 years (or less) of a recurrence-free period for pT1G3 tumour. Once long-term surveillance with cystoscopy had been discontinued, 55% of CUs felt no role was indicated for urine cytology in further follow up, whereas 17% would use it for all tumour types and 28% are selective.

CONCLUSION

Our study has shown the complete lack of consensus regarding the long-term surveillance of bladder cancer in the UK and Ireland. This has major implications for policy making, resources allocation and cancer survival. We highlight the need for national guidelines in this area for optimal surveillance of bladder cancer, as a good prospective evidence-based data will not be available for many years. We believe our study might form the basis for discussion on such guidelines.