Contemporary survival in metastatic bladder cancer patients: A population‐based study

Abstract The overall survival (OS) improvement after the advent of several novel systemic therapies, designed for treatment of metastatic urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder (mUCUB), is not conclusively studied in either contemporary UCUB patients and/or non‐UCUB patients. Within the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, contemporary (2017–2020) and historical (2000–2016) systemic therapy‐exposed metastatic UCUB and, subsequently, non‐UCUB patients were identified. Separate Kaplan–Meier and multivariable Cox regression (CRM) analyses first addressed OS in mUCUB and, subsequently, in metastatic non‐UCUB (mn‐UCUB). Of 3443 systemic therapy‐exposed patients, 2725 (79%) harbored mUCUB versus 709 (21%) harbored mn‐UCUB. Of 2725 mUCUB patients, 582 (21%) were contemporary (2017–2020) versus 2143 (79%) were historical (2000–2016). In mUCUB, median OS was 11 months in contemporary versus 8 months in historical patients ( Δ = 3 months; p < .0001). After multivariable CRM, contemporary membership status (2017–2020) independently predicted lower overall mortality (OM; hazard ratio HR = 0.68, 95% confidence interval CI = 0.60–0.76; p < .001). Of 709 mn‐UCUB patients, 167 (24%) were contemporary (2017–2020) and 542 (76%) were historical (2000–2016). In mn‐UCUB, median OS was 8 months in contemporary versus 7 months in historical patients ( Δ = 1 month; p = .034). After multivariable CRM, contemporary membership status (2017–2020) was associated with HR of 0.81 (95% CI = 0.66–1.01; p = .06). In conclusion, contemporary systemic therapy‐exposed metastatic patients exhibited better OS in UCUB. However, the magnitude of survival benefit was threefold higher in mUCUB and approximated the survival benefits recorded in prospective randomized trials of novel systemic therapies.