[New aspects in the treatment of elderly people with carcinoma of the urinary bladder (author's transl)].

50% of the patients with carcinoma of the bladder are older than 70 years. During the first examination a deep muscle invasion was found in about 60%. (Stages T3/T4. This situation makes forced surgical intervention in most cases impossible (e.g. radical cystectomy and segmental resection), therefore the transuretheral resection has to be the leading therapeutical procedure. During the past 10 years 80% of the bladder cancer patients were treated by TUR most ofter followed by external irradiation. The 3-year-survival rate now shows better results than before 1968 when TUR was performed in only 10% of the cases. During the period between 1968-1974 90% of the patients with superficial bladder carcinoma were still alive after 3 years, in comparison with only 52% between 1953-1967. The figures for patients with deeply invasive bladder carcinoma now shows 18% in comparison with 12%. The 3-year-survival rate for all stages shows an increase from 24% to 44%. Discussion of these results.