Treatment and outcomes of bladder cancer in Armenia.

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

e16574 Background: Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer by incidence in Armenia with around 450 new cases diagnosed every year. Methods: For this retrospective hospital-based study we have collected data from three main oncology centers in Armenia: Yeolyan Hematology and Oncology Center, Mikaelyan Institute of Surgery, and Muratsan Hospital Complex of Yerevan State Medical University. Data of patients with bladder cancer who were treated at these three centers during 01/Jan/2010 - 01/Jan/2023 period was collected from the medical records. Statistical analysis was conducted by 01/Nov/2023. Results: Eighty-seven patients with bladder cancer treated during mentioned period in these three hospitals were included in the final analysis. Male to female ratio was 8.6:1. 70% of patients were smokers. Median age at diagnosis was 65 years (range 37-82 years). 5.7% of patients had stage I, 17.2% stage II, 47.1% stage III, 25.3% stage IV bladder cancer, and for 4.6% of patients' stage was unknown. 9.2% of patients had grade 1, 18.4% grade 2 and 60.9% grade 3 tumors. Among stage IV patients the most common metastasis sites were lungs (36.4%), followed by non-regional lymph nodes (31.8%). Median overall survival (OS) was 31 months for the entire cohort. Median OS was 31 months for stage I, 62 months for stage II, 40 months for stage III and 14 months for stage IV patients. While OS for non-metastatic bladder cancer was higher than for metastatic stage, this difference was not statistically significant (39 vs 14 months; p=0,088). About 61% of patients received 1 st line chemotherapy with Cisplatin and 33.3% with Carboplatin. Only 9% of patients received immunotherapy during their course of treatment. In non-metastatic setting median OS was significantly better for those treated with Cisplatin containing regimens, compared with those treated with Carboplatin containing regimens (40 vs 23 months; p=0,021), while in stage IV this difference was not statistically significant (30 vs 14 months; p=0,269). Conclusions: Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers in Armenia. Treatment with Cisplatin in non-metastatic patients was associated with better OS compared with Carboplatin. Patients diagnosed in metastatic setting have really poor prognosis with median OS slightly surpassing 1 year. While new treatment modalities with immunotherapy and targeted therapy are showing promising results worldwide, they are not widely available in Armenia.