Cancer of the urinary bladder category T2, T3, (NxMo) treated by interstitial radium implant: second report.

Three-hundred-twenty-eight patients with bladder cancer category T2NxMo and 63 patients with category T3NxMo have been treated by 3 times 3.5 Gy external irradiation followed by a radium implant. Overall 5- and 10-year survival in the T2 category are 56%. In the T3 category they are 39% and 13%, respectively. The intercurrent death (i.e. without evidence of bladder malignancy) corrected actuarial survival percentage in the T2 category is 75% at 5 years and 69% at 10 years. The corresponding percentages in the T3 category are 62% and 59%. Prognosis is worsened by the following factors: more than 1 diagnostic transurethral resection, a pathological intravenous pyelography, non-papillary structure and poor degree of differentiation of the growth. Prognosis in category T3, as compared with category T2, is worse because of the prevalence of bad prognosticators in this T3 category. Therapeutic adaptation to these findings might improve prognosis in the future.