[Intravesical adjuvant chemotherapy for superficial bladder cancer -- results of a survey in Saxony].

For patients with superficial bladder cancer, adjuvant intravesical chemotherapy or immunotherapy with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is recommended in national and international guidelines. We analyzed whether the recommended therapeutic regimens are used in daily urological practice. Questionnaires concerning the adjuvant intravesical therapy were sent to 152 urologists in the German Federal State of Saxony. Of the surveyed physicians, 134 practiced in an outpatient medical facility and 18 in a hospital. Of the questionnaires, 73 (48.02 %) were returned and evaluated. An adjuvant intravesical therapy after transurethral bladder tumor resection was performed in every second patient (median value 50.07 %). The majority of the urologists (79.4 %) treated the bladder tumors with intravesical chemotherapy or BCG depending on tumor stage and grade of malignancy. Chemotherapeutic agents or BCG was exclusively used in 13.6 % and 4.1 % of treated patients, respectively. Chemotherapeutic agents were predominantly applied up to the primary tumor stage T1 and malignancy grade G2. In cases with recurrent T1 bladder tumors of G2 or higher grade of malignancy, BCG was the main agent for intravesical treatment. In patients with recurrent T1G3 tumors, the majority of urologist (57.1 %) preferred another therapeutic regimen than intravesical instillation. Only 23.2 % of the urologists believed that intravesical BCG is superior to chemotherapeutic agents. These data demonstrate that adjuvant intravesical instillation with chemotherapeutic agents and BCG is well established in urological practice. In contrast to the recommendations of national and international guidelines, chemotherapeutic agents are more frequently used in cases with a high risk of progression.