Female Gender is Associated with a Worse Survival After Radical Cystectomy for Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder: a Competing Risk Analysis

Objective: To determine the association of gender with outcome after radical cystectomy for patients with bladder cancer.

Methods: An observational cohort study was conducted using retrospectively collected data from 11 centers on patients with advanced bladder cancer treated with radical cystectomy. The association of gender with disease recurrence and cancer-specific mortality was examined using a competing risk analysis.

Results: The study comprised 4296 patients, including 890 women (21%). The median follow-up duration was 31.5 months for all patients. Disease recurred in 1430 patients (33.9%) (36.8% of women and 33.1% of men) at a median of 11 months after surgery. Death from any cause was observed in 46.0% of men and 50.1% of women. Cancer-specific death was observed in 33.0% of women and 27.2% of men. Multivariable regression with competing risk found that female gender was associated with an increased risk for disease recurrence and cancer-specific mortality (hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% confidence interval, 1.108-1.465; P = .007) compared with male gender. Important limitations include the inability to account for additional potential confounders, such as differences in environmental exposures, treatment selection, and histologic subtypes between men and women.

Conclusion: Our analysis identified female gender as a poor-risk feature for patients undergoing radical cystectomy. This adverse prognostic factor was independent of standard clinical and pathologic features and competing risk from non-cancer-related death.