Radiotherapy concurrent with weekly gemcitabine after transurethral tumor resection in muscle ınvasive bladder cancer.

OBJECTIVE: In this report, we determined the efficacy and the toxicity of low dose weekly gemcitabine with radiotherapy, in medically unfit or refused surgery muscle-invasive bladder cancer (BC) patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 2008 to 2012, 15 patients were included into the retrospective analysis. Weekly gemcitabine was administered at a rate of 50 mg/m(2) with a median dose of 63 Gy radiotherapy.

RESULTS: The median age was 69 (range, 55-86). Median follow-up was 15 months (range, 5-53 months). A complete response was achieved in 12 patients (80%). Median progression free survival and overall survival were 15 months (range, 7-23 months) and 18 months (range not calculated), respectively. Local recurrence was found in 3 patients (20%) and distant recurrence was found in 5 patients (33.3%) for the entire group. While salvage surgery was performed on 1 patient, salvage chemotherapy was delivered for 4 patients. Treatment was well tolerated, there was no treatment interruption or instances of toxic death. A serious toxicity (grade 3) cystitis was seen in only 1 patient.

CONCLUSIONS: Multimodality treatment of muscle invasive BC proved a feasible and effective treatment option. Gemcitabine based chemoradiation is an active treatment option with a low toxicity profile for patients with muscle invasive BC, who are not suitable medically or refused to surgery.