Chronic kidney disease as an important risk factor for tumor recurrences, progression and overall survival in primary non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer

To evaluate the impact of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on oncologic outcomes among non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients who underwent transurethral resection of bladder cancer.

We followed up the medical data of 158 newly diagnosed NMIBC patients enrolled in this study for more than 4 years. The ten putative risk factors included patient age, gender, white blood cells, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, tumor count, size, grade, stage, CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate, eGFR < 60) and histological differentiation.

Total recurrent bladder and upper urinary tract (UUT) tumors were observed in 51 patients (32 %) and 5 patients (3 %), respectively. Cancer progression to the high pT(≥pT2) stage was found in 9 patients (6 %). Cancer-specific and overall survival rates were 91 % (144/158 patients) and 78 % (123/158 patients), respectively. In univariate analysis, significant predictive determinants were tumor count, size, grade, stage, CKD and squamous differentiation for bladder tumor recurrence; CKD and squamous differentiation for UUT tumor recurrence; and tumor count, grade, stage and CKD for cancer progression. On the other hand, old age (>70 years), high grade, T1 stage, and CKD were poor prognostic factors for overall survival. In multivariate analysis, CKD was an independent risk factor for bladder/UUT tumor recurrences and the overall survival rate.

NMIBC patients with CKD had worse prognosis and higher tumor recurrence and progression rates than other patients. These patients should be intensively monitored at upper and lower urinary tracts and be aggressively treated for comorbidities of CKD.