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. 2021 Jun;32(6):627-634.
doi: 10.1007/s10552-021-01416-2. Epub 2021 Mar 22.

Incidence rates and contemporary trends in primary urethral cancer

Mike Wenzel  1   2 , Luigi Nocera  3   4 , Claudia Collà Ruvolo  3   5 , Christoph Würnschimmel  3   6 , Zhe Tian  3 , Shahrokh F Shariat  7   8   9   10   11   12 , Fred Saad  3 , Alberto Briganti  5 , Derya Tilki  6 , Philipp Mandel  13 , Andreas Becker  13 , Luis A Kluth  13 , Felix K H Chun  13 , Pierre I Karakiewicz  3
Affiliations

Incidence rates and contemporary trends in primary urethral cancer

Mike Wenzel et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: We assessed contemporary incidence rates and trends of primary urethral cancer.

Methods: We identified urethral cancer patients within Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results registry (SEER, 2004-2016). Age-standardized incidence rates per 1,000,000 (ASR) were calculated. Log linear regression analyses were used to compute average annual percent change (AAPC).

Results: From 2004 to 2016, 1907 patients with urethral cancer were diagnosed (ASR 1.69; AAPC: -0.98%, p = 0.3). ASR rates were higher in males than in females (2.70 vs. 0.55), respectively and did not change over the time (both p = 0.3). Highest incidence rates were recorded in respectively ≥75 (0.77), 55-74 (0.71) and ≤54 (0.19) years of age categories, in that order. African Americans exhibited highest incidence rate (3.33) followed by Caucasians (1.72), other race groups (1.57) and Hispanics (1.57), in that order. A significant decrease occurred over time in Hispanics, but not in other race groups. In African Americans, male and female sex-stratified incidence rates were higher than in any other race group. Urothelial histological subtype exhibited highest incidence rate (0.92), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (0.41), adenocarcinoma (0.29) and other histologies (0.20). In stage stratified analyses, T1N0M0 stage exhibited highest incidence rate. However, it decreased over time (-3.00%, p = 0.02) in favor of T1-4N1-2M0 stage (+ 2.11%, p = 0.02).

Conclusion: Urethral cancer is rare. Its incidence rates are highest in males, elderly patients, African Americans and in urothelial histological subtype. Most urethral cancer cases are T1N0M0, but over time, the incidence of T1N0M0 decreased in favor of T1-4N1-2M0.

Keywords: Histology; Incidence rate; Race; Region; Time trend; Urethral cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

Not applicable.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Incidence and trends over time in urethral cancer in the United States. Incidence and trends over time in urethral cancer in the United States from 2004 to 2016, in the entire cohort (a) and according to patient sex (b). Abbreviations: AAPC Average annual percentage changes, CI Confidence interval
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Incidence and trends over time in urethral cancer in the United States from 2004 to 2016, according to race groups and sex for (a) male, (b) female. Due to sample size limitations, ASR could not be computed for other race group in either males or females. Similarly, sample size limitations prevented computation of incidence of Hispanic females. Abbreviations: AAPC Average annual percentage changes, CI Confidence interval
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Incidence and trends over time in urethral cancer in the United States from 2004 to 2016, according to histological subtype and sex Male (a), female (b). Due to sample size limitations, incidence could not be computed for males with other histological subtype. Abbreviations: AAPC Average annual percentage changes, CI Confidence interval, SCC Squamous cell carcinoma
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Incidence and trends over time in urethral cancer in the United States from 2004 to 2016, according to SEER region (a) and stage at presentation (b), as well as stage at presentation in males (c) Due to sample size limitations, stratification of regional incidence rates could not be computed according to patient sex, as well as for stage at presentation in females. Abbreviations: AAPC Average annual percentage changes, CI Confidence interval
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