Saturday, May 26, 2007

UroToday - AUA 2007 - Cystectomy in the Elderly: does the Survival Benefit in Younger Patients Translate to the Octocenarians?

UroToday - AUA 2007 - Cystectomy in the Elderly: does the Survival Benefit in Younger Patients Translate to the Octocenarians?:
"The authors thus concluded that while all age groups derive an overall and cancer-specific survival benefit following a radical cystectomy, this benefit is smaller in octogenarians than for younger patients."

This is an interesting study that shows the benefit of surgery for bladder cancer decreases as paient's are older.

I actually performed this operation in 6 patients in their 90s. All the patients did well with surgery without major complications, but most died within 1 year. 3 from other causes and 1 from recurrent bladder cancer. 2 were still alive at 18 months the last time I looked into it.