A team of investigators from the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, and the Center for Biotechnology at Temple University, including Dr. Antonio Giordano and Dr. Andrea Morrione, in collaboration with Dr. Antonio Tufano from the Department of Urology of Sapienza University of Rome and Dr. Nadia Cordua from the Department of Oncology of Humanitas Institute, Milan, has recently investigated the prognostic value of site-specific metastases in patients with mUTUC and its association with survival outcome. Analysis was performed on a SEER population-based database including a total of 633 patients. 

The study, “Prognostic significance of organ-specific metastases in patients with metastatic upper tract urothelial carcinoma,” has been published in the international-peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Medicine.

Several noteworthy observations were found. First, within the population presenting with a single organ metastatic site, the most common metastatic sites were distant lymph nodes, accounting for 36%, followed by lung, bone and liver metastases, accounting for 26%, 22.8% and 16.2%, respectively. Second, survival curves showed significantly worse overall survival for patients with liver metastases compared to patients presenting with distant lymph nodes or lung metastases. When analyzing cancer specific survival (CSS), statistically significant differences were detectable only between patients presenting with liver metastases vs distant lymph node metastases. Third, Multivariate analyses showed that the presence of liver or multiple organ metastatic sites were an independent predictor of poor survival. Additionally, survival benefits were found in patients undergoing radical nephroureterectomy and chemotherapy.

The authors believe this work is important to provide a detailed picture of metastatic behavior in patients with mUTUC.