A trial comparing outcomes for people who had already had surgery or radiotherapy for bladder cancer

Cancer type:

Bladder cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Other

This trial looked at people who had had radiotherapy or surgery for bladder cancer in the past to try and find out which treatment helped people live longer.

Doctors often treat bladder cancer with either surgery or radiotherapy. It can be difficult to decide which treatment to choose as there are pros and cons for each one.

The research team who ran this trial wanted to try and find out if one treatment was better than the other. They looked at medical notes of people who had had surgery or radiotherapy in Leeds several years before. This type of trial is called a ‘retrospective trial’.

The aim of this trial was to find out which treatment was best for people with bladder cancer.

Summary of results

The research team found that there was no significant difference in how long people lived after surgery or radiotherapy for bladder cancer.

They looked at the medical notes of

97 people who’d had radiotherapy
72 people who’d had surgery

Most of the people taking part had stage T2 or T3 bladder cancer. Of those who’d had surgery, 70 had their whole bladder removed (a radical cystectomy) and 2 had part of their bladder removed (a partial cystectomy).

The research team found that of those who had surgery

More than 6 out of 10 (65%) lived for at least a year
Just over 4 out of 10 (41%) lived for at least 5 years
More than 3 out of 10 (36%) lived for at least 8 years

And of those who had radiotherapy

Almost 8 out of 10 (78%) lived for at least a year
More than 3 out of 10 (35%) lived for at least 5 years
Nearly 2 out of 10 (18%) lived for at least 8 years

So although more people who had radiotherapy lived for at least a year, this changed over time and more people who had surgery lived for at least 5 years. When they looked at the overall figures at 5 years, there was no difference in statistical terms.

The difference in the 8 year figures could be because the people who had radiotherapy were older than the people who had surgery. This is probably because their doctors decided they were not well enough to have surgery. When the research team looked in more detail at who had died because of their bladder cancer, the results were very similar in each group (about half).

The research team also looked at how many people’s cancer had come back. Again, this was roughly the same in both groups, about 1 in 3 people. The difference between the groups was not significant in statistical terms.

These results showed that there was no difference in whether the cancer came back or not, or in how long people lived for. The research team concluded that radiotherapy could be safely used as an alternative to surgery.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.