Department of Radiation Oncology, Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Associate Researcher, Head of Lab Biomarker Discovery & Translational Research, Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece.
Anticancer Res. 2022 Aug;42(8):3767-3778. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.15867.
Urothelial carcinoma is the most common type of bladder cancer including upper urinary tract urothelial cell carcinoma (renal pelvis and ureters) and urethral carcinoma. It exhibits high mortality and morbidity rates and is usually diagnosed at a late, incurable stage, carrying a poor prognosis. Local symptoms in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) have an adverse impact on quality of life (QoL) and are associated with frequent hospitalizations. Herein, we review the role of palliative radiotherapy in mUC as the means to ameliorate a wide range of symptoms, seeking optimum patient stratification, even though the latter should be balanced against any acute or late toxicity that may arise. For this, links to the molecular biology of mUC are explored and QoL assessments are presented. To maximize patient benefit from radiotherapy, we conclude that multi-modal datasets need to be re-visited to better inform multi-center studies where policy makers, health professionals, researchers, and patient groups meet. Radiotherapy either as a monotherapy or alongside systemic therapy may serve as an added value.
尿路上皮癌是最常见的膀胱癌类型，包括上尿路尿路上皮细胞癌（肾盂和输尿管）和尿道癌。它具有较高的死亡率和发病率，通常在晚期被诊断为不可治愈的阶段，预后较差。转移性尿路上皮癌（mUC）患者的局部症状对生活质量（QoL）有不利影响，并与频繁住院有关。在此，我们回顾姑息性放疗在 mUC 中的作用，作为改善广泛症状的手段，寻求最佳的患者分层，尽管这应与可能出现的任何急性或迟发性毒性相平衡。为此，我们探讨了 mUC 的分子生物学相关性，并提出了 QoL 评估。为了从放疗中使患者获益最大化，我们得出结论，需要重新审视多模态数据集，以便更好地为多中心研究提供信息，使政策制定者、卫生专业人员、研究人员和患者群体能够汇聚一堂。放疗无论是作为单一疗法还是与系统治疗联合使用，都可能具有附加价值。
