Prognostic factors in muscle‐invasive bladder cancer treated with radiotherapy: an immunohistochemical study

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Abstract
To determine the prognostic role of p53, Ki-67 and p21 for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with curative intent by radiotherapy. The study included 131 patients (24 women and 107 men, median age 72 years, range 40–86) with transitional cell carcinoma (T2-T4) treated with external definitive pelvic radiotherapy between 1985 and 1994. Paraffin-embedded pretreatment biopsies from the patients were examined for the presence of p53, p21 and Ki-67, detected by immunohistochemistry, and related to tumour stage, grade and patient survival. The expression of p53 protein correlated positively with the detection of Ki-67 (P5% p21 expression tended to live longer than those with 5%) were independent prognostic factors for overall survival. Further investigation is warranted in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer undergoing different types of treatment. p21 seems to play an independent prognostic role in these patients, in addition to T category and grade.