Survival of patients with superficial bladder cancer after treatment: a 10-year retrospective follow-up study.

The clinical aspects of 64 patients with superficial bladder cancer (Ta, T1, T2 according to the TNM classification, International Union against Cancer or Stage O, A, B1 according to Marshall) admitted to the Tsukuba University Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Treatment of these patients was mainly by transurethral surgery. The overall 10-year survival rate was 73%. Eight patients died and four of them showed an invasive change, the so-called metamorphosis, during the follow-up period. Patients with papillary, pedunculated tumors had better survival rates than those with papillary, sessile tumors. Patients with tumors less than 1 cm in size had better survival rates than those with tumors 1-3 cm in size. There were no statistical differences in survival rates between patients with single and multiple tumors. Up to seven years from surgery, the patients with T2 tumors had lower survival rates than those with Ta-T1 tumors. The patients with grade I tumors had better survival rates than those with grade II tumors. There were no significant differences in recurrence rates related to the grade of the tumor. It is thought that the prognosis of superficial bladder cancer in our series depended mainly on the shape, size, number, depth and grade of the tumor.