Impact of stage migration on bladder cancer: A slow but steady improvement in the long term survival rates after radical cystectomy in the last 25 years

INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVES: Bladder cancer (BCa) is a heterogeneous disease with up to 25% of incidental diagnoses reported to be found muscle invasive at first episode. Numerous markers and an increased awareness have been recorded in the recent years. We sought to evaluate if those considerat ions may determine a change in BCa clinical presentation at radical cystectomy (RC) over years in a single high volume tert iary referral center. MATERIAL & METHODS: The study relied on 2,003 consecutive BCa pat ients treated with RC and extended pelvic lymphadenectomy (PLND) at a single inst itution between January 1990 and December 2014. Pat ients were st ratified into tertiles according to …