Grossman - Figure 8

Unadjusted survival stratified by treatment and T stage

FIG. 8:  This Figure reports the unadjusted survival by stage stratification from SWOG 8710,[2] showing that patients randomized to neoadjuvant MVAC plus cystectomy had better survival than patients randomized to cystectomy alone, whether the patients had T2 or T3/T4a stage disease.

Once again it is important to stress that since this study was done almost 15 years ago, the T2 referred to in the report is what we now know as T2a.  The absolute magnitude of the difference in median survival was greater in the patients with T3 or T4a than patients with T2, although the hazard ratios were similar, because patients with T3 and T4a disease are more likely to harbor occult metastases than patients with T2 disease.

References

[2]

Grossman HB, Natale RB, Tangen CM, et al. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus cystectomy compared with cystectomy alone for locally advanced bladder cancer. N Engl J Med. 2003;349:859−66  https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa022148