Risk Group Stratification Based on Preoperative Factors to Predict Survival after Nephroureterectomy in Patients with Upper Urinary Tract Urothelial Carcinoma

Background. After radical nephroureterectomy (RNU), substantial numbers of patients with upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUT-UC) are ineligible for adjuvant chemotherapy owing to diminished renal function. Accurate preoperative prediction of survival is considered important because neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be as effective for high-risk UUT-UC as for muscle-invasive bladder cancer. We performed risk group stratification to predict survival based on specific preoperative factors. Methods. We enrolled 536 UUT-UC patients treated with RNU in this retrospective cohort study and assessed preoperative clinical and laboratory variables influencing disease-specific survival. Results. The median follow-up was 40.9 months. Using univariate analysis, tumor location; number of tumors; hydronephrosis; clinical T stage; clinical N category; voided urine cytology; neoadjuvant chemotherapy; hemoglobin; white blood cell (WBC) counts; and C-reactive protein had a significant influence on diseasespecific survival (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that clinical T stage, voided urine cytology, and WBC were independent predictors (P = 0.041, P = 0.020, and P = 0.017, respectively). We divided patients into three risk groups based on the number of the three independent predictors: 0, low risk; 1, intermediate risk; 2 and 3, high risk. Significant differences in diseasespecific survival were found among these risk groups (P <= 0.0047). Conclusions. Our results suggest that risk group stratification based on preoperative clinical T stage, voided urine cytology, and WBC counts may be useful for selection of UUT-UC patients for neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Prospective studies with larger numbers of patients and a longer follow-up period are needed to confirm our results.