Impact of previous malignancy at diagnosis on oncological outcomes of upper tract urothelial carcinoma

Background The evidence of prognostic factors and individualized surveillance strategies for upper tract urothelial carcinoma are still weak. Objectives To evaluate whether the history of previous malignancy (HPM) affects the oncological outcomes of upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Methods The CROES-UTUC registry is an international, observational, multicenter cohort study on patients diagnosed with UTUC. Patient and disease characteristics from 2380 patients with UTUC were collected. The primary outcome of this study was recurrence-free survival. Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed by stratifying patients according to their HPM. Results A total of 996 patients were included in this study. With a median recurrence-free survival time of 7.2 months and a median follow-up time of 9.2 months, 19.5% of patients had disease recurrence. The recurrence-free survival rate in the HPM group was 75.7%, which was significantly lower than non-HPM group (82.7%, P = 0.012). Kaplan-Meier analyses also showed that HPM could increase the risk of upper tract recurrence ( P = 0.048). Furthermore, patients with a history of non-urothelial cancers had a higher risk of intravesical recurrence ( P = 0.003), and patients with a history of urothelial cancers had a higher risk of upper tract recurrence ( P = 0.015). Upon multivariate Cox regression analysis, the history of non-urothelial cancer was a risk factor for intravesical recurrence ( P = 0.004), and the history of urothelial cancer was a risk factor for upper tract recurrence ( P = 0.006). Conclusion Both previous non-urothelial and urothelial malignancy could increase the risk of tumor recurrence. But different cancer types may increase different sites’ risk of tumor recurrence for patients with UTUC. According to present study, more personalized follow-up plans and active treatment strategies should be considered for UTUC patients.