Outcomes of Surgical Therapy for Local Recurrence and Oligometastatic Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder: 20 Years of Experience in a Tertiary Center

INTRODUCTION: The impact of surgical therapy on selected patients with limited metastatic/recurrence burden has not yet been well studied. We investigated the outcome of surgical resection for patients with local recurrence only or oligometastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder. METHODS: We identified patients with oligometastatic UC or local recurrence only after radical cystectomy who underwent surgical resection with curative intent between 2003 and 2022 at our center. Oligometastatic UC was defined as three or fewer resectable lesions, regardless of the number of organs involved. We studied the surgical outcome, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in this selected group of patients. RESULTS: A total of 39 patients were selected, including 18 (46%) with local recurrence and 21 (54%) with oligometastatic UC. Nine patients (23%) experienced intraoperative complications, all of whom belonged to the local recurrence group, while 8 patients (20.5%) experienced major postoperative complications, including 6 patients from the local recurrence group and 2 patients with oligometastatic disease. The median PFS following surgery was 19 months (95% CI; 2.5-35.5) with 1- and 3-year progression rates of 47% and 29%, while the median OS was 24 months (95% CI; 8.6-39.3) with 1- and 3-year survival rates of 51% and 30%. A significantly better median PFS was observed in the metastatic versus local recurrence group (35 vs. 8 months, p = 0.01). Similarly, a median OS of 41 months was observed in the metastatic group compared to only 12 months for the local recurrence group (p = 0.12). Overall, a better survival time of 30 months was observed in the metachronous group compared to 6 months in the synchronous group (p = 0.046). In a further analysis of the metastatic group, metachronous oligometastasis was associated with a longer survival of 43 months compared to 9 months for synchronous metastasis (p = 0.18). Some differences were not significant, which may be due to sample size. CONCLUSION: Our study shows reasonable surgical and survival outcomes of metastasectomy, especially in the metachronous subgroup, for UC without risk of higher perioperative morbidity. On the other hand, resection of local recurrence is associated with a higher risk of incomplete resection and higher intraoperative and postoperative morbidity without offering a survival benefit.