Background: Muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) comprises 25% of bladder cancers reported in the published literature. It is associated with poor survival, difficult management, and high healthcare costs.
Objectives: Our primary objective was to describe the prevalence of MIBC amongst transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) patients diagnosed with bladder cancer attending a South African regional hospital. Our secondary objective was to describe the characteristics of these MIBC cases.
Patients and Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of TURBT patients who attended a regional hospital in Durban, South Africa (1 January 2015-31 December 2019).Bladder cancer patients were identified from histopathology reports following TURBT. T-stage classification (T2-T4) was used to identify MIBC cases.We calculated the prevalence of MIBC in bladder cancer patients attending the hospital. Data for patient sociodemographic, clinical, and epidemiological characteristics were also collected and summarized using descriptive statistics.
Results: The prevalence of MIBC was 42.7% (44/103 bladder cancer patients). T2 was the most common T-stage in MIBC cases (56.8%). Important features identified in this case series included advanced age, male gender, haematuria, abdominal pain, tobacco smoking, recurrent urinary infection, schistosomiasis, hypertension, bladder mass or hydronephrosis on computed tomography, and palpable bladder mass.
Conclusions: The prevalence of MIBC in our study was almost twice that reported elsewhere. Some characteristics reported in our study could be addressed in primary care to reduce MIBC risk or should be investigated for fast-tracking patient referrals to our urology center.