Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Bladder cancer

Elderly and female patients fare the worst and deserve better

Nature Reviews Urology volume 10, pages 371–372 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

New research confirms that elderly patients with bladder cancer are clearly undertreated and women with high-risk noninvasive disease have worse outcomes than their male counterparts. Aggressive treatment can benefit both of these patient groups and should be offered and discussed appropriately.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Noon, A. P., Albertsen, P. C., Thomas, F., Rosario, D. J. & Catto, J. W. Competing mortality in patients diagnosed with bladder cancer: evidence of undertreatment in the elderly and female patients. Br. J. Cancer http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2013.106.

  2. Shariat, S. F. et al. The effect of age and gender on bladder cancer: a critical review of the literature. BJU Int. 105, 300–308 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Donat, S. M. et al. Radical cystectomy in octogenarians--does morbidity outweigh the potential survival benefits? J. Urol. 183, 2171–2177 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Witjes, J. A., Moonen, P. M. & van der Heijden, A. G. Review pathology in a diagnostic bladder cancer trial: effect of patient risk category. Urology 67, 751–755 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Sylvester, R. J. et al. Predicting recurrence and progression in individual patients with stage Ta T1 bladder cancer using EORTC risk tables: a combined analysis of 2596 patients from seven EORTC trials. Eur. Urol. 49, 466–477 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. van den Bosch, S. & Witjes, J. A. Long-term cancer-specific survival in patients with high-risk, non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer and tumour progression: a systematic review. Eur. Urol. 60, 493–500 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Chamie, K. et al. Compliance with guidelines for patients with bladder cancer: variation in the delivery of care. Cancer 117, 5392–5401 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Mungan, N. A. et al. Gender differences in stage-adjusted bladder cancer survival. Urology 55, 876–880 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Internal Mail 659, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, P. O. Box 9101, Nijmegen, 6500 HB, Netherlands

    J. Alfred Witjes

Authors
  1. J. Alfred Witjes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Witjes, J. Elderly and female patients fare the worst and deserve better. Nat Rev Urol 10, 371–372 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2013.130

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2013.130

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing