Radiotherapy for muscle-invasive urinary bladder cancer in elderly patients

OBJECTIVE: To review retrospectively the outcome and toxicity of Radiotherapy (RT) in the cohort of elderly patients (EP) with muscle-invasive urinary bladder carcinoma (MIUBC). METHODS: Thirty-six EP were treated with RT with radical intent. The age of the cohort ranged from 71 to 89 years with a median of 79 years. Eighty percent of the patients had Easter Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) 0 and 1 performance status. Conventional and accelerated fractionation RT regimen were utilized. RESULTS: With median follow up of 45.8 months the median survival was 23.9 months. There was a trend toward better survival in patients treated with the accelerated fractionation regimen. The median survival for that group (12) has not yet been reached where it is 9.7 months for the group (24) treated with conventional fractionation. Treatment related toxicity was low for any RT regimens. CONCLUSION: RT is well tolerated by EP with good baseline performance status. The role of accelerated fractionation should be tested by conducting randomized trials.