Mortality Rates for Bladder Cancer Patients Who Use Tobacco: Outcome of Surgery Alone vs Surgery, Chemotherapy, and Adjuvant Treatment

Purpose. Bladder cancer is responsible for over 12,000 deaths annually and the ninth most frequent cancer worldwide. Many bladder cancers can be managed conservatively, requiring a cystoscopic removal of identified cells. Other cancers, which are staged as a more invasive type, are treated more aggressively with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and other adjuvant therapies. Methods. Utilizing Florida Cancer Data from the Department of Health, we will determine if there are differences in mortality rates by measuring treatment outcomes of performing surgery alone (Sr) Vs Surgery, Chemotherapy, and Adjuvant (Sr + CT + Adj). We evaluated subsets of data including treatment options SR and SR+CT+Adj, also histology, staging and smoker, non smoker. Results. We reported RRmh = 1.18, (1.04, 1.35) of the adjusted association as a final effect of stage and smoking on the association of treatment and mortality. [1.18 – (2.13 – 1.17)] / 1.18 = 0.18 × 100 = 18%. Thus adjusting for Histology, patient with localized tumor who are smokers, are 18% more likely to die if they undergo Surgery + Chemotherapy + Adjuvant than if they undergo Surgery alone. Conclusion. Patients who underwent Chemotherapy with the surgery are 1.78 times more likely to die than those who underwent surgery alone. Assessment for bladder cancer must be done on clients presenting with symptoms and early management should be encouraged. Healthcare providers must perform in depth interviews to ascertain client smoking history and document on medical record.