Postoperative complications and short-term oncological outcomes of patients aged ≥80 years undergoing robot-assisted radical cystectomy.

Purpose: To assess complication rates and early oncological outcomes of patients aged ≥80 years who underwent robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC).

Methods: A total of 368 consecutive patients underwent radical cystectomy from April 2001 to September 2013 in a tertiary referral center. Sixty-one patients aged ≥80 years underwent RARC and constitute the cohort of interest. Complications arising within 30 and 90 days of surgery were graded using the modified Clavien classification and were additionally categorized by organ system using a standardized complication reporting system. Recurrence-free survival, disease-specific survival and overall survival were calculated using Kaplan-Meier curves.

Results: Median age was 83 years (range 80-94). Twenty-nine (48 %) of all tumor specimens were stage ≥pT3. The median number of nodes removed was 19 (range 6-67). The soft tissue positive margin rate was 10 %. A total of 27 (44 %) patients had complications within 90 days, of which 9 had major complications. Two patients (3 %) died from surgical complications within 90 days. At a median follow-up of 13 months, 12 (20 %) patients had developed recurrent cancer and subsequently died from disease. An additional 13 (21 %) patients died from non-cancer-related causes. The median overall survival time was 36.0 months. At 2 years, recurrence-free, cancer-specific and overall survival rates were 73, 74 and 61 %, respectively.

Conclusions: In patients aged ≥80 years, RARC is feasible with acceptable perioperative morbidity and favorable short-term oncological outcomes. Therefore, RARC should be considered a valid option for carefully selected patients aged ≥80 years with bladder cancer.