Background A large number of studies have confirmed that squamous differentiation is closely related to the prognosis of bladder cancer, and studies also showed that it is an independent predictor for the prognosis of such disease. However, the role of squamous differentiation in pT1 low-grade bladder cancer (LGBC) has not been reported yet. This study mainly intends to explore the clinical significance of squamous differentiation in pT1 LGBC.
Methods The clinicopathological data of 582 patients with pT1 LGBC from April 2007 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed, including 51 cases pathologically diagnosed as pT1 LGBC with squamous differentiation, and 531 cases as pT1 LGBC without squamous differentiation. The clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients in the two groups were compared.
Results 51 cases (8.7%) were pathologically diagnosed as pT1 LGBC with squamous differentiation. As compared with non-squamous differentiation, squamous differentiation was closely related to the age of patients (P=0.009) and postoperative recurrence (P<0.001). Further studies on the pT1 LGBC recurrence group showed that the patients in the squamous differentiation group were more prone to multiple recurrences (P=0.033) and invasive recurrence (P<0.001) after surgery. The Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that pT1 LGBC patients with squamous differentiation had shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS) time. The Cox proportional hazard analysis confirmed that squamous differentiation was an independent predictor of RFS time in patients with pT1 LGBC.
Conclusions Squamous differentiation is closely related to postoperative recurrence of pT1 LGBC, especially multiple recurrences and invasive recurrence after surgery. Squamous differentiation is an independent predictor of the RFS time in patients with pT1 LGBC.