Current Perspectives on the Diagnosis and Management of Primary Urethral Cancer: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Primary urethral cancer (PUC) is a rare but highly aggressive malignancy that causes malignant urethral obstruction. We conducted a literature review using PubMed to identify original research studies that assessed the diagnosis and management of primary urethral cancer. PUC affects men more than women, is more common in African Americans than Caucasians, and is associated with history of chronic inflammation and irritation of the urinary tract. Patients suspected of PUC should undergo a complete work-up including cystoscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, and biopsy. In men and women, surgical monotherapy ranging from organ-sparing to more radical reconstructive procedures has adequate survival rates for early stage PUC and has been shown to be similarly as effective as radiation monotherapy, while multimodal therapy has become the standard of treatment for advanced stage PUC. Salvage surgery or radiation therapy has been linked with increased survival rates. Nodal involvement at the time of diagnosis is a negative prognosticator and should be treated with multimodal therapy. Further prospective studies with greater sample sizes and standardized clinical trials would allow for greater consistency in evaluating the different treatment modalities for PUC.

Keywords: chemotherapy; multimodal treatment; operative procedures; radiotherapy; surgical procedures; urethral cancer.

Figure 1

Flow diagram outlining article identification and selection based on PRISMA criteria.