Br. J. Cwwer 1000 1003 Macmifan Press 1994 Br. J. Cancer (I(1994),994), 79,70, 1000-1003 C)( Macmillan Ltd.,

Bladder and function after cure of pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma in childhood

C.K. Yeung', H.C. Ward2, P.G. Ransley', P.G. Duffy' & J. Pritchard3

'Department of Paediatric Urology, Hospitalfor Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London WCIN 3JH, UK; 2Department of Paediatrics, St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth Palace Road, London SE) 7EH, UK, 3Department ofHaematology and Oncology, Hospital For Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London WCIN 3JH, UK.

Sa_y EEkven survivors of pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma underwent bladduer function studies and upper urnary tract evaluation at a mean of 6.6 years after completion of therapy, which induded a conservative, bladder-spang surgial polcy. Pnmary tumour sites were: bladder base/, 6; bladder dome, 1; vagina, 2; and pelc side wall, 2. Seven chidren (five bladder base/prostate, one vagna and one pelvic side wall tumours) had receivd irradiation to the pehlis with extenal beam alone, or both. Al seven of these patients had markedly reduced functional badder capacity (11-48% of mean expected value for age) and abnormal voiding patters, though bladder complance was not reduced and bladder emptying was almost complete in five cases. Four of these chidren also had upper tract dilatation and two required reconstructive bladder surgery because of severe bilateral hydronephrosis. By contrast, each of four childr treated without radiotherapy had a normal functional bladder capacity and a normal voiding pattern. All survivors of pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma, especially those who have received radiotherapy, should be carefully monitored for dysfunction of both lower and upper urinary tracts. The frequency-volume voiding chart is a sensitive and easily accomphshd method of assessing bladder fution in these patients.

With the advent of multidisciplinary therapy over the past statectomy were carried out only after proven localised two decades, there have been major advances in the manage- tumour recurrence. ment of children with pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS). Nineteen (73%) of the 26 children survived, and the 17 Overall 3 year survival rates of 70-78% have been reported who retained their bladders formed the basis of this study. (Maurer et al., 1988; Raney et al., 1990). The challenge now The following investigations were carried out: (a) a micturi- is to find a suitable combination of treatment modalities that tion frequency-volume chart completed at home for a mini- will maintain this high cure rate with a minimum of mor- mum of 5 days to record the volumes and frequency of fluid bidity - 'cure at least cost'. Preservation of pelvic organs, intake and urine output as well as leakage; (b) an ultrasound especially the and the vagina, has become scan of the urinary tract; (c) a 9Tc-mercaptoacetyltriglycine one of the main goals of modern treatment (Ortega et al., (MAG3) isotope renogram; and (d) an indirect isotope cysto- 1979; Voute et al., 1981; Massad et al., 1991). gram. Children with an abnormal voiding pattern according The survival of 20 childrn with pelvic RMS treated to the frequency-volume chart also underwent a conven- between 1976 and 1983 in our hospital with chemotherapy, tional urodynamic study using a Gaeltec GR700 urodynamic radiotherapy and radical surgery was 55%, and only 6 of the system (Gaeltec Research, UK). This was performed through 11 survivors retained their bladders (Broecker et al., 1988). a double-lumen IOF suprapubic catheter inserted under Despite these disappointing results we decided, in 1983, to general anaesthesia 24 h prior to the study. A catheter was adopt a more conservative surgical policy. After initial inten- placed in the rectum for recording the abdominal pressure sive chemotherapy, local removal of tumour was undertaken just before the commencement of the study. Bladder filling with a view to preserving the bladder. Patients with com- was with room temperature normal saline at a rate of pletely resected tumours received only chemotherapy post- 10-15 ml min-'. The filling volume, together with the intra- operatively, whereas those with residual disease were treated vesicaL abdominal and detrusor pressures, were recorded by combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy (Atra et al., continuously during both filling and micturition phases. 1994). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long- The functional blader capacity of each child was assmssed term function of the retained bladders in surviving patients using the maximum voided volumes from the frequency- and to assess whether this treatment approach had any volume chart. The actual capacity was then compared with adverse effects on the upper urinary tract. the expected bladder capacity according to age, calculated using the formula (Koff, 1983): bladder = + x Patie.s and mthod capacity (ml) [age (years) 2] 30 Informed consent for all these studies was obtained from Between 1983 and 1988, 26 children with newly diagnosed the children's parents and, for children of appropriate age, primary pelvic RMS (excluding those with paratestiular from the patients thelmlves. The chi-square test with Yates's tumours) were treated in our institution. Treatment was with correction was used for statistical comparisons, with P-values intensive chemotherapy (pulsed vincristine, actinomycin D of <0.05 taken as significant. and either cyclophosphamide or iphosphamide, i.e. 'VAC' or 'IVA') and, whenever possible, conservative bladder-sparing surgery. Radiation therapy (external beam, brachytherapy or Re ts (Table 1) both) was used for non-resectable or incompletely resected tumours. Full details are provided elsewhere (Atra et al., Of the 17 children eligible for the study, four lived abroad 1994). Surgical procedures were (a) partial , (b) and were not available for study and two declined to par- submucosal resection of residual tumour or (c) resection of ticipate. In the 11 chkldren (five boys) recruited into the exophytic paravesical masses. Total cystectomy or cystopro- study, the primary tumour sites were bladder base/prostate in six, pelvic wall in two, vagina in two and bladder dome in one. Histological subtypes were embryonal in ten and Correspondence: J. Pritchard. alveolar in one case. The proportions were similar to those in Received 23 March 1994; and in revised form 4 July 1994. the whole group of 17 patients. Two children completed the BLADDER FUNCTION AFTER CHILDHOOD PELVIC SARCOMA 1W1

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0 < 0 l 0% 0 - > 0. - C-i cn av1 %C F- 1U2 C.K. YEUNG et al. frequency-volume chart but, having no clinical problems, disappointing 3 year disease-free survival (DFS) rate of 52%, did not wish to proceed with further investigations. Nime significantly inferior (P = 0.02) to the 70% DFS achieved in completed the planned studies. Their ages ranged from 6 to the IRS-I study in which radical primary surgery was used. 16 years (mean 10.8 years), at a mean follow-up of 6.6 years Another disappointment was that in IRS-II only 22% of (range 4-9.5 years) after completion of all treatment for their patients with bladder/prostate primary tumours retained their sarcomas. bladders at 3 years, an outcome similar to that of IRS-I Four of the 11 children who were studied had a normal (23% with preserved bladders) (Maurer et al., 1988; Raney et voiding pattern. Seven children had an abnormal voiding al., 1990). Similar figures had also been reported by Grosfeld pattern. Three of them were constantly wet both by day and (1983) and McLorie (1989), who concluded that bladder by night; one was a boy who also had continuous dribbling salvage, although desirable, is possible only in the complete of urine via a rectourethral fistula. The other four children absnce of residual disease after chemoradiotherapy (Gros- were continent by day but had nocturnal enuresis. One of feld et al., 1983; McLorie et al., 1989). them, a 1 5-year-old girL, also had very frequent, small- More encouraging results have been reported from other volume voiding during the daytime. Assessment of functional centres. Ghavimi et al. (1984) for instance, reported a 50% bladder capacity using the frequency-volume chart was pos- bladder salvage rate among 18 survivors, and Pratt et al. sible in ten children (Table I), but not in the boy with a (1984) have reported a 73% survival and 81% bladder sal- rectourethral fistula. Six children had reduced functional vage rate. However, very few reports even mention the func- bladder capacity with between 11% and 48% (median 22%) tional status of the bladders or the upper urinary tracts of expected bladder capacity for age. All six of these child- (Ortega, 1979; Voute et al., 1981; Hays et al., 1982, 1990; ren, and the boy with a rectourethral fistula, had abnormal Grosfeld et al., 1983; Ghavimi et al., 1984; Pratt, 1984; voiding patterns varying in severity from nocturnal enuresis Maurer et al., 1988; McLorie et al., 1989; Crist et al., 1990; only to continuous dribbling of urine by day and by night. Raney et al., 1990; La Quaglia, 1991; Massad et al., 1991) Each of these seven children had received post-operative and to our knowledge no detailed studies, such as this one, extemal beam pelvic iradiation with doses from 3,000 to have been published. 5,000 cGy; three of them (patients 3, 4 and 5) had also Although the numbers in our study are small, the overall 3 received brachytherapy. By contrast, none of the four child- year survival rate of 73% and bladder salvage rate, in our ren with a normal functional bladder capacity (range survivors, of 89% compare favourably with other reported 91-126%; median 103%) and a normal voiding pattern had series (Ortega, 1979; Voute et al., 1981; Grosfeld et al., 1983; received radiotherapy (P<0.01). No obvious correlation was Koff, 1983; Ghavimi et al., 1984; Pratt, 1984; Maurer et al., observed between functional bladder capacity and (i) the site 1988; McClorie et al., 1989; Crist et al., 1990; La Quaglia et of origin of the primary tumour, (ii) the type of surgical al., 1990; Raney et al., 1990; La Quaglia, 1991; Massad et al., operation; (iii) the amount of bladder removed during the 1991). The high bladder salvage rate is the consequence of (a) tumour resection; or (iv) the cumulative dose of iphos- our policy of treating local residual disease with irradiation phamide or cyclophosphamide. rather than radical surgery, unless there was unequivocal Of the nine childrn who finished the entire series of persistent tumour-, (b) during serial endoscopic follow-up, planned investigations, the ultrasound scan showed normal cautious interpretation of 'positive' histopathological reports findings in five patients. Two chiklrn had mild to moderate on biopsies taken from the site of previous tumour-bearing unilateral hydronephrosis and two had severe bilateral areas that appear macroscopically normal (Atra et al., 1994); hydronephrosis. The isotope renogram also showed normal and (c) cautious interpretation of follow-up pelvic com- findings in five patients; two children had mild unilateral puterised tomographic (Cr) scans (Atra et al., 1994). The impairment of kidney fumction and the other two had surgical expertise available in our institute for successful marked bilateral impairment of function. Indirect isotope excision of residual tumours in the bladder base, using the revealed mild unilateral vesicoureteric reflux submucosal resection technique without resorting to total (VUR) in one child and gross bilateral VUR in two children. cystourethrectomy, and for any subsequent urinary tract re- The other six patients had no reflux. Abnormal imaging construction is also a crucial part of this bladder conserva- findings were detected only in children who had received tion policy. radiotherapy (Table I). Early local irradiation has been advocated by Tefft et al. Urodynamic studies were performed in four of the seven (1980) for patients with residual disease and involvement of children with abnormal voiding patterns, and reduced func- regional nodes. We do not dissect the internal iliac nodes in tional bladder capacity was confirmed in each instance. None our patients and we have achieved good 'local tumour con- of these children had detrusor instability. Maximal detrusor trol' despite delayed irradiation for patients with small- presu during voiding ranged from 38 to 66 cm H20 with a volume residual post-surgical disease. The morbidity of blad- peak uine flow rate of 14-27 ml s-'. All had complete blad- der dysfunction and the rate of deterioration of the upper der emptying. Decreased bladder compliance, as indicated by urinary tracts are, however, important considerations in a a high end-filling pressure of over 20cm H20, was found conservative surgical policy which also involves only in one boy with a bladder base tumour (patient 3). He radiotherapy. was also found to have a very low bladder capacity of 14% It is notable that the main bladder dysfunction in these of normal mean for age. patients is reduced functional bladder capacity, usually with Both patients with severe bilateral hydronephrosis and normal compliance. Reduced compliance would be expected impaired renal function have subsequently undergone recon- if the dysfunction were caused by radiation-induced fibrosis. structive surgery in the form of augmentation ilecystoplasty Vale (1992) has recently demonstrated that, after irradiation, with bladder neck reconstruction and an appendiceal Mitro- rat bladders show a uniform delayed increase in purinergic fanoff stoma. One boy (patient 4) with a bladder base tumour, sensitivity and that fibrosis is not prominent. This observa- who had received radiotherapy, developed recurrent bladduer tion suggests that a denervation hypersensitivity phenomenon stones and required cystolithotripsy. The boy with a rec- may contribute to the reduced functional capacity noted in tourethral fistula and another girl (patient 2) are currently our study. awaiting reconstructive surgery. A high bladder salvage rate can be achieved in children with pelvic RMS via a surgical policy aimed at bladder conservation. Preservation of normal bladder function can be Discossim achieved in some cases, and reconstruction of a compliant urinary reservoir is made easier by the presence of a bladder, Contrasting results have been reported from different centres because augmentation enterocystoplasty is a much easier pro- adopting a primary chemotherapy-bladder preservation cedure than the construction of a bladder de novo. In the strategy for pelvic RMS. The Second United States Inter- interval between tumour therapy and reconstructive surgery, group Rhabdomyosarcoma Study (IRS-II) has reported a especially when radiotherapy has been used, the upper tracts BLADDER FUNCTION AFTER CHILDHOOD PELVIC SARCOMA 1003 may be at risk because of a small capacity and/or non- We thank Dr M.L. Godley for providing technical advice and assist- compliant bladder. It is therefore imperative that these child- ance with the urodynamic studies, our colleagues in the Department ren have frequent long-term monitoring of function of the of Radiology for the imaging investigations, Dr P.N. Plowman for bladder and upper urinary tracts. Assessment of the voiding supervising the radiotherapy treatment and Lisa Luxon for expert pattern using a frequency-volume chart is a cheap and secretarial help. We also thank Dr R. Pinkerton for referring one of reliable method of detecting bladder dysfunction and helps to these patients. select patients who require further investigation.

Referm

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