[Concurrent radio-chemotherapy in infiltrating cancer of the bladder: a new therapeutic approach?]

Abstract

Until now, radical cystectomy has been considered the most effective treatment for invasive bladder cancer. However, it fails to cure more than 50% of patients and can result in a mediocre quality of life. In an effort to improve cure rates, combined modality regimens have been investigated. Despite the preliminary results of early clinical trials, randomized trials have most often failed to show any benefit from neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy. One of the major progress brought by radiotherapy has been the wide use of conservative treatment in several cancer, and in the recent years promising results with concomitant radiochemotherapy have been published. Use of the conservative approach in bladder cancer now appears to be a tangible reality for selected patients, but these combined modalities have not yet been tested in randomized trials.