Prognostic significance of previous tonsillectomy after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer

Abstract

Introduction: To examine whether previous tonsillectomy (TE) impacts on survival after radical cystectomy (RC) for bladder cancer (BC).

Patients and Methods: A total of 320 patients were staged cM0 and underwent RC for BC between 2002 and 2013. We retrospectively investigated whether patients had undergone TE prior to RC. Chi-square/Fisher-Exact test was carried out to compare clinicopathological features between the TE- and non-TE-group. Kaplan–Meier analysis with log-rank test was used to estimate recurrence-free survival (RFS) and multivariable Cox-regression analysis of risk factors of recurrence. The median follow-up was 31 months (interquartile range: 9–54).

Results: A history of TE was present in 18 of the 320 patients (5.6%). All TEs were performed for benign conditions. TE prior to RC was associated with a history of appendectomy (p = 0.045), lower age at RC (p = 0.029), tumor unifocality (p < 0.001), advanced histopathological tumor stage (p = 0.015), non-pure urothelial carcinoma (p = 0.025), lymphovascular invasion (p = 0.035) and receipt of palliative chemotherapy (p = 0.004). The 3-year RFS was 39.2% for patients with previous TE and 62.4% for those without (p = 0.008). In multivariable analysis, adjusted for all significant parameters of univariable analysis, lymph-node tumor involvement (p = 0.017), positive surgical margins (p = 0.047), tumor grade (p = 0.032), advanced tumor stage (≥pT3a; p = 0.049) and a history of TE (p = 0.021) remained independent prognosticators of recurrence.

Conclusion: In this series, previous TE was an independent predictor of recurrence after RC for BC. Further studies are needed to assess whether TE induces immunological alterations that might exert adverse effects on cancer progression of patients with invasive BC.

Keywords:

• Bladder cancer
• radical cystectomy
• recurrence
• survival
• tonsillectomy

Ethics approval

This study was conducted in accordance to the declaration of Helsinki and the provisions of the local ethics committee Tuebingen (approval number: 417/2010 A).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).