Prognostic factors influencing survival after nephroureterectomy for transitional cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract

We analyzed the prognostic factors influencing survival after surgeries for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUT-UC) with longer follow-up periods than in previous studies. Between January 2000 and December 2004, 386 patients underwent nephroureterectomy for UUT-UC. The data for the 221 patients with UUT-UC were retrospectively reviewed. Nine variables were evaluated for association with the survival outcomes of cause-specific survival. The prognostic significance was tested univariately with the log-rank test. The simultaneous effects of multiple prognostic factors were estimated by multiple regression analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model. The median follow-up was 38.4 months. The 5-year over all survival was 62.3%. Significant prognostic factors for disease-specific survival rate on univariate analysis were pathological stage (p < 0.0001), tumor grade (p = 0.0324), and venous invasion (p < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis revealed that only venous invasion was significant for disease-specific survival rate (p = 0.0205). Venous invasion was the only independent prognostic factor in pathologically localized UUT-UC.