medwireNews: Oncologic outcomes are similar for patients with nonmetastatic bladder cancer regardless of whether they undergo robot-assisted or open radical cystectomy, RAZOR trial findings suggest.
Among patients with clinical stage T1–T4, N0–N1 disease, the primary endpoint of progression-free survival at 2 years was achieved by 72.3% of the 150 participants who were randomly assigned to undergo the robot-assisted procedure and by 71.6% of the 152 patients who had open surgery. This gave a between-group difference of 0.7 percentage points, which met the prespecified criteria for noninferiority of robotic cystectomy.
Moreover, perioperative outcomes – such as blood loss and length of hospital stay – were significantly better in the robot-assisted than open surgery group, while the incidence of major complications and patient-reported outcomes were comparable.
“These findings provide high level evidence to inform discussion between patients and their physicians regarding the benefits and risks of various approaches for a complex and often morbid surgery, such as radical cystectomy,” Dipen Parekh, from the University of Miami in Florida, USA, and co-investigators conclude in The Lancet.
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